Two Hands
by Gminis
Summary: Set after episode 194 of shippuden. Naruto and Sasuke are stuck together and are forced to live under the same roof for a certain amount of time. With the date of the Uchiha massacre getting closer, Naruto will learn a few things about his teammate's pain and Sasuke will find out a few secrets about the the blonde. NO SLASH.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello world! So this is my first multi-chapter story so be nice with me. Remember english isn't my first language so I'm sorry if there are spelling mistakes. If you find them you can blame Google! Google and his translater! Anyway, so I think all the stories I've seen of this episode are slash stories, so I decided to do one that's strictly FRIENDSHIP. Please review and tell me what you think. Be nice okey? There will be some fluff. NO SLASH.**

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"Well... That certainly is interesting."

The Third Hokage said thoughtfully as he leaned back on his chair, a small smile making its way to his wrinkled face. His eyes twinkled with amusement as he stared at the two gennin in front of him. Team 7 had just returned from a mission to retrive a stolen, golden statue for the Feudal Lord's sister. According to Kakashi, there had been a few complications when fighting the thieves. This had worried him and Iruka, until the jounnin gave a full report on how the events unfold, with Sasuke and Sakura's help. It was amazing how the things turned from worrisome to ridiculous.

" _Very_ interesting indeed..." It was more than clear he was enjoying the moment, but, being the serious leader of the village he was, he tried his best not to show it. Iruka Umino didn't even bother.

The chunnin had bite his lip to prevent the grin to form, but it was useless. He exploded in a fit of laughter that reflected his thoughts on the situation. This, of course, only lasted a few seconds before Naruto stepped in, completely irritated.

"Oi! Stop laughing sensei! This is serious! Geez, and here I thought you were the adult!" Screamed the blonde outraged. Iruka tried controling his mirth and wiped away a couple of tears that had threatened to fall out merriment.

"It... just... I" a chuckle "Just _how_ did you two end up getting stucked?!" He asked with the content of a five-year old boy.

"We don't know! It just happend!" He cried in annoyance while waving his arms, which cause Sasuke's right arm to mimmick.

They had travel all the way from border of the country to The Leaf and that thing still didn't melt! It was ridiculous! And embarrasing. They couldn't walk around the village like this. It was as if they were holding hands! Naruto could practically hear Kiba's taunts and Sasuke could already feel the shame. He was an Uchiha. The _last_ Uchiha. The clan's pride should be reflected on him, and now that pride will be smother by Naruto's stupidity. Not mention his _own_ pride. He will not be seen hanging around in the village with the loser.

"Well," said Iruka, who was finally composed. "According to the thieves leader It will wear off in a few days right?" a nod from Kakashi. "Well, you two will just have to put up with it until It goes away." The face the boys made almost provoked another laugh from the chunnin.

"Are you kidding me?" exclamed the children at the same time.

"We can just ignore the fact that we are stuck!

"How do you expect us to just shrugg it off?!

"What about training?!

"We can't do everything with just one hand!"

"What will happen when have to bath?!"

This and more complains were yelled to the Hokage and teacher, each of them more stupid than the last. It came to the point when Hiruzen had to stop smoking his pipe so he wouldn't choke trying to hold back the laughter. It was fun. Seeing Sasuke Uchiha act like a boy that's trying to convince his mother to let him stay home on the first day of school was quite entertaining. It was the most interesting thing that had happend in weeks, but right now there were other reports that had to be checked and a lot of paperwork to do.

Tipping his hat over his eyes Hiruzen told them to be quiet in the most stern voice he could manage at that moment.

"I understand your concers," he placed his elbows on the table infront of him, fingers intertwined. "but I'm afraid there's nothing we can do. You are just gonna have to be patient and wait until this... substance goes back to its liquid form." he eyed both gennin. "You should probably be more worried about your living arrangements in this time period."

"Living..."

"... _Arrangements_?!"

The Third smiled. "Team 7 won't be assigned any missions until this... problem comes to an end. That's everything. You are dismissed."

Kakashi and Sakura bowed respectfully while Sasuke and Naruto stood still.

"Old Man... don't tell me you won't actually do _anything_." Naruto deadpanned.

"Is not as if I can do anything." was the calm reply.

"But-but... Old Man!"

"Naruto, that's enough! You heard what Lord Hokage said." Iruka leaned over the table as he scold the blonde. Naruto gritted his teeth in anger and was prepare to keep arguing when he felt a tug on his right arm. He turned his head to see Sasuke already walking to the exit, dragging him in the process.

"Come on idiot start moving." he said without sparing him a glance.

"What?! Are you serious?!" he yelled as he had now other but to follow him out the door. Still, he kept the rant going. "You can't actually agree with the Old Man! I mean this is-"

The door closed with the sound of Naruto's loud voice echoing through the halls. It was then, when the elder gentleman was finally able to realese a chuckle.

"Tell me Iruka," the young man turned his head to the Hokage. "just how much do you think they will be able to be that way without trying to end eachother's life?" he asked with clear amusement. The chunnin laughed at this. "If you want my opinion Lord Third, I would say that they will be fighting on the floor at any minute now." he said as he crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back on the chair. Hiruzen smirked.

Taking in a large breath of smoke from his pipe, the village leader closed his eyes momentarily. Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha were being forced to live together and socialize for an indefenite amount of days at the same time they are being forced to fulfill tasks with just one hand seens the other is trapped in some strange liquid form of chakra that turned solid, forcing them to rely on eachother in order to complete two hand actions. Yes, it _will_ be entertaining. Especially when bath time came.

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"Are you listening!? Sasuke, you bastard!"

"What else can we do?!" he exclaimed, having more than enough of Naruto's voice. He stopped dead on his tracks and turned to face the annoying blonde. It was so abrupt that Naruto had to keep himself from stumbling on Sasuke and give him another kiss. One was bad. Two was worse. In three he would die. The Uchiha, though, didn't took note of it and focused himself on glaring daggers at his teammate. "You heard what they say. It will take days before this thing dissolves so all we can do is wait, no matter how much we hate it." he growled the last part. He _really_ hated it. The blonde scowl at him.

"I get that!" he whined. "What I don't get its how do you plan we deal with... _this_!" He said as he raised the dark grey ball that covered both their hands. Sasuke snorted.

"We? If anyone should have a plan is you, Naruto. You are the reason why we are in this problem." The jinchuriki stared at him wide-eyed. Anger started to boil in his whole being. Was the bastard really blaming him for this?! What the heck?! He didn't wait to voice his opinion.

"What?! You are putting this on me?! No, no, pal. Not happening. The only guilty one is you for not letting me get the statue when I had the chance!"

"Of course is your fault! If you weren't an idiot we would have never get caught! All you wanted was to get on my way of ending the mission quickly!"

"Why you...!"

They were on the floor in record time, kicking and grunting and trying to do as much damage as they could to eachother with one arm. Kakashi and Sakura, who were already walking down the stairs, came running to the hall in order to 'seperate' the boys. While Kakashi had his arms around Sasuke's torso, Sakura grab hold of Naruto's shoulders, and together, they pull the boys away from eachother (well, as much as they could with their hands stuck together).

"Now, now, behave." said the jounnin to a the struggling teen.

"Naruto! Quit it!" orderes the young kunoichi as she placed her arms around the blonde's neck to strangle him.

It took five minutes to calm them down. When they were finally quiet, Kakashi stood infront of his students and spoke in his usual calm voice.

"Now, listen here both of you." The children looked up. "I know that none of you are happy with this, but you are gonna have to deal with it. And when say 'deal with it' I mean both of you, together, as comrades." Naruto's eyes went to gaze at the wall. Sasuke scowled and Kakashi's voice soften. "Just be patient for a week top and then you will be able to stay as far from eachother as you want." _So much for solving differences..._ , he thought. "The important thing right now is for both of you to decide were will the two of you live." That caught the boys attention.

" _What?_ " they asked.

"That's right." he shrugged. "Until that thing dissolves, you two will have to stay in one of your houses. You need to decide which."

"Mine." they said at the same time. Kakashi almost rolled his eyes. _Great..._ Both kids turned to eachother with a heated glare. Naruto just had had enough of the Uchiha. It was because of the bastard they were like this. If he was honest, he didn't mind were they spent the night, but he had his pride. Sasuke will not treat him like trash just because he thought it was his fault. At the beggining he thought that it didn't matter who's fault was (they both acted like idiots), but the Uchiha, being the proud bastard he was, placed all the responsability to him. No, he didn't care in which house they stayed, but he will put off a fight just so he could annoy his teammate.

All those thoughts went through his mind in a matter of seconds as he held his ground infront of his comrade. They would have stayed that way for the whole afternoon, but just when Naruto believed they would start fighting again, something flickered in the Uchiha's black eyes. All the fire that was directed to the blonde a while ago, disappeared. The anger vanished in a second and Sasuke spoke in the most tired of voices.

"Fine, your's." the raven sighed. Naruto stared at his friend, surprised that Sasuke gave in so easily. "But we have to go to my apartment first. I need a few things." Naruto's brows furrowed in cunfision and (why not saying it) concern. The Uchiha wasn't meeting his gaze, and there was something strange in the way he stood. The blonde send him an untrusting glance and was about to talk when Sakura interrupted him.

"Naruto! Sasuke had just agreed to stay in your house. Aren't you saying anything?" asked the pink-haired girl with a small glare. Naruto looked a her before focusing on the boy. "You now what? Let's stay in your's. I'm sure is bigger than mine and I'm not the cleanest person of the world, so you can imagine how my apartment is..." he trailed off. "Okey..." was the answer.

Both gennin stood in an awkward silence which made Sakura squirm uncomfortably and Kakashi smile.

"Well," said the jounnin as he break the silence and get his students attention. "that just about covers it. Now all you have to do is to get Naruto's stuff and then spend the night in Sasuke's home. See? Easy." he exclaimed cheerfully while putting his hands on his pockets. "I'll suggest you take the rooftops, though. That way you don't get any unwanted attention, right?"he gave them a one-eye smile.

"Yeah..."

"Sure..."

As the Team walked out the building, Naruto made sure the to turn the conversation happier topics as he usually did. All the time, he tried to shake his mind from the look Sasuke had while arguing. Was it just him? Or was he _upset_?


	2. Packing up

**Hello! Happy late birthday Itachi! I promise I'll do a one-shot for him later (he's my favorite charater). Anyway here is the second chapter (a little crappy, but nexo will be better) and it goes just for you HxH KiruGon Fan. You are my second reviewer! Thank you a lot! It really inspires me. I'm also fan of HunterxHunter (I plan on doing a one-shot of Gon and Killua later). Well, let's get on with it. (This will be at least ten chapters) review please! Oh! And to answer your question there are two stories here in Fanfiction: hunter sentences and words of memories (one is with some slash). Whatever, enjoy! Any wrong grammar please tell me! Review!**

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When you are a memeber of Team 7 peace is something you simply can't have. Peace and _silence_. Sakura learned that a few weeks after being put in the same squad as Naruto and Sasuke. The bickering between her two teammates was annoying at the beggining. She tried stopping one of their arguments once. It ended with a fight between the _three_ of them and Kakashi having to drag them by the ear to their respective homes. Later on, she would get used to it and simply learn to play along, like their sensei. If those two wanted to fight there was no stopping them. Like now.

They were currently on Naruto's apartment, helping the blonde gather the things he needed before moving temporarly with Sasuke. Everything was going nicely. Naruto talking absently as he went around the room grabing different sets of clothing and some other 'random junk' as he called it. The problems started when Sasuke, following him through the house, end up tripping over a ramen bowl, which lead the raven to complain about how messy his teammate was. This, of course, lead Naruto to make a snarky remark that Sakura didn't remember, but that pissed the Uchiha, which lead to another fight, which was currently on its climax.

Both gennin were standing infront of eachother, crouched slightly so it would be easier to jump into a fighting stand. The hand that was covered in fuel chakra [I don't know how to call it] was raised in what could have been a threatening matter and the Uchiha's eyes were flashing red every now and then. The main purpose of getting Naruto's stuff and then leave was forgotten and replaced with the need to know if Naruto had been a pig in some other lifetime. This was expected, for Sakura, and for Kakashi apparently, since the jounnin was currently leaning against the wall reading his offending little orange book.

As they keep 'talking', Sakura took her time to look around her teammate's home. It was certainly dirty. Clothes, plastic cups of ramen, blankets, and even some weapons where scattered all round the floor, like minefield. No wonder Sasuke tripped. The apartment itself was... old. Many of the walls were cracked and the wood of the floor made sounds when walked on. It was very small, too. Not good for two people. A small living room with the kitchen and a short hallway that leaded to the blonde's room where the bathroom, she guessed, was. All in all, it wasn't that much of a home. _She_ wouldn't like to live there. It was... cold and empty. Aside from the clothe there wasn't really anything you could called personal. No pictures on the walls, no significant posters, not even toys! Hadn't Naruto played with toys when small? Well, they might be in store but still! She wondered if it was because he didn't had any parents. And if it was, would Sasuke's apartment be the same? Now that she thought about it, was it Monday? Or Tuesday? Wasn't the anni-

"Why would I need to wash the dishes when they're getting dirty again with the same thing!? It's stupid!"

"It's about _hygiene_ , idiot! Not that I expect you to understand since you clearly don't see the difference between soap and dump!"

"Why should I!? It's my house! I can do what I want to!"

"Yeah! In _your_ house! Not in _mine_!"

"If it really bothers you then just clean it!"

"You're insane if you think I'll go around cleaning your mess!"

"You'll be ' _going around'_ with me the whole week anyway! We are stuck! At least if you clean you'll be doing something useful!"

"Do I look a maid to you!?"

"As in girly? Yes!"

"Idiot!"

"Bastard! Wait... I mean bitch!"

Just as in the Hokage's Office, Sakura and Kakashi were forced to interfere, holding each boy in order to prevent a physical fight to break out. When they managed, for second time that day, to calm the boys down, Kakashi tried a different approach.

"I thought I told you to deal with it." said Kakashi tiredly. "Sasuke, I know that Naruto is a disaster." the blonde's face was hilarious, but the jounnin ignored it. "Naruto, I know that Sasuke is obsessive cumplusive and how annoying it is." the boy scoffed. "But remember, you _chose_ to stay in _his_ house. So until this" he gestured the grey ball. "goes away you are gonna have to respect Sasuke's home. Am I clear?"

"But sensei-"

"Am I clear?" he asked more sternly. He was used to the boys' arguments, but they were going to leave under the same roof with one hand disabled, and the only way for them to go through it was working together. Besides, considering what was going to happend in a few a days it would be best, for Sasuke, to keep the fights at the minimum. He knew how... delicate the Uchiha was during this time of the year and, even though he knew how to hide it, one little comment from Naruto might be just enough to push the boy over the edge. If Sasuke ended up snapping at the blonde there would be the slight, and frightening, possibility that the raven might actually attack the boy. Kakashi loved his students, but he didn't trust the Uchiha when angry. Sasuke had the bad habit of not thinking when he was like that.

His thoughts went back to the pouting blonde infront of him and briefly wondered if he should tell Naruto about the anniversary but he dismissed the idea. Right now, it would be impossible to talk to his sensei's son in private, and there was no gentle way of speaking about it with Sasuke listening. He had no other option but to trust Naruto. He had to trust he wouldn't say something out of line and that he would see the signs and leave Sasuke as alone as he could with their hands stuck together.

 _Ha! Yeah right. Keep telling yourself that Kakashi! As if you don't know your students_. A voice that sounded an awful lot like Obito echoed on his head. Truth was, Naruto could be very thick sometimes and asking him to notice the slight changes on Sasuke's perfectly build mask was sort of a long shot. But, they didn't call it hope for nothing. So, instead of trying to send hints to the kid, he settled with glaring sternly at the Uzumaki as he waited for him to speak. The child in questions looked away angrily.

"Yes sensei." he said sulkingly.

"And you, Sasuke?"

"Hn."

"So I thought." he went back to Naruto. "Do you have everything you'll need?" The boy's gaze was blank for second before his eyes widened. Kakashi raised an eyebrow but the gesture was ignored. He turned to Sasuke with a new, serious expression. "Is there ramen in your house?" The raven scowled and that was enough answer. "Are you kidding!? Why didn't you tell me so I could pack rations!" The boy tried to run towards the kitchen, but was held back by Sasuke. "I hate that thing! You are _not_ filling _my_ kitchen with that!"

The jounnin rolled his eyes as the children started another game of pulling-the-chakra-covered-hand. If they couldn't even agree where to go, it was going to be a long week... for them. Now they were dependent of eachother. All the simple, everyday tasks that required two hands were now impossible for them. How can they solve it? Working together. It wasn't really that hard. Just be nice with eachother and that's it.

"What do you have against ramen!?

"What's your deal with ramen!?"

As the argument continue Kakashi had a realization. A smirk came to his face at the thought. He wondered if the boys had thought about it. Probably not, and he was not ruining the surprise. That thought of both boys in that situation made him laughed. Call him a pervert but it was very hard not to think about it. Sakura, who was standing next to him, looked at her sensei with curious eyes.

"What is it sensei?" The man chuckled and leaned down to whisper something at the girls ear. A small giggle caught the boys attention and they stopped fighting. Their pink haired teammate was covering her mouth with one had while the other was holding Her stomach. Kakashi was at her side, trying to look innocent.

"What's so funny Sakura?" asked Naruto, smiling in anticipation. "Oh... Nothing. Just a thing Ino told me." Another giggle. "Oh come on, tell me! I want to know!"

"And you will know." murmured the jounnin, but only Sasuke noticed. "What do you mean?" his eyes travel from his teammate to sensei suspiciously. "What is it?" he asked, annoyed. "Nothing." they said in a sing along voice. Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, but the blonde interrupted him. "So are we going? Or what?"

"Right." Kakashi coughed, cleaning his throat. "Sakura," the girl looked at him. "why don't you back home? Its getting late and I'm sure I can handle this." The girl hesitated but smile when Kakashi winked. Saying her goodbyes, the kunoichi ran out the door and to the streets. Naruto was able caught a glimpse of the outside and noticed that the sun was already going down.

"So, you ready?" The blonde was tempted to say no. The bastard he had for a friend didn't let one single cup of instant ramen get inside his backpack and he _needed_ ramen. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have mind. He could always go to Ichiraku's. The problem was that he didn't want to be seen going around the village with Sasuke 'holding hands', as he came to call it. It was embarrasing. He knew they'll have to face the people eventually, but he rather do that later, during the day, not during the night. Never during the night. It wasn't safe. Shacking those thoughts out of his mind he gave the raven a small glare before grinning at his sensei.

"Yup! Let's go!"

He through his backpack over his avaible shoulder and walked, with Sasuke of course to the door, Kakashi followed them. Once outside, the blonde gave a quick glance around, making sure there was no one near. No one watching. Nope. Clean. When his sensei came out, he turned, took the key out of his pocket, and locked the door as fast as he could. Sasuke saw this, unfortunely, but didn't say anything.

"All done!" he proclaimed loudly as he turned to face them and smile. Again, Sasuke saw it. There was something hesitant about the smile and the way his eyes were itching to scann the area. He was jumpy. He didn't want to leave. Strange, but he doesn't ask. It's none of his business.

"Alright. Come on." Kakashi was already on the building's roof and Sasuke jumped as well to catch up. What he didn't saw was that Naruto was busy putting his key away and didn't jump with him. The blonde stumble from the sudden movement and his weight was more than enough to pull Sasuke down from the air. Gravity made the two of them fell on the ground face-first. Half of Naruto's body was on top of Sasuke and the their unable arm was twisted, making the position very uncomfortable. The raven groaned in annoyance from his spot on the floor. This was going to be a long week.

"What are you two doing?"

"Hey bastard! Next time you want to jump... Try and tell me first!"

A _very_ long week.

"Shut up moron and help me up."

"Why should I!? You made us fall!"

A very, _very_ long week.


	3. Bath Time!

**Hello world! Man, this chapter took forever! So I was really looking forward to do this chapter, but _damn!_ Do you have any idea how hard is to do fluff between friends when they are the same sex and age!? You have to be extra careful it so doesn't end up like slash! I can'y believe it! But I really like how it turn out so enjoy! As always thank you HxH KiruGon Fan this goes for you! Review!**

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"Well, here we are!"

Kakashi sounded incredibly cheerful given the situation, and Sasuke could only roll his eyes. This was ridiculous. He didn't need an escort.

"What are you waiting for bastard!? Open up! It's freezing!"

And it was freezing indeed. As the sun went down behind the mountains, a chilly breeze traveled through the village, pushing the hot air into the cozy homes. It wasn't strange, really. Nights in Konoha were cold for most part of the year, despite the season. The winds blowing over the Land of Fire were always fresh and calm, making the trees rustle and the waters ripple, carrying the coldness from the Land of Wind during the night. Anyway, it was cold. And Naruto didn't mind expressing his discomfort.

Sasuke rolled his eyes again in annoyance and mentaly counted to ten. The blonde will drive him mad in a matter of hours if he wasn't patient. And he _wasn't._ He tried to keep reminding himself that it was just for a week, that it wasn't forever, that he was a matured and centered Uchiha, but everytime he saw his left hand or heard his teammate talk he felt like strangling him. It wasn't strange. He hated Naruto's guts, but this time it was different. This _week_ was different. This week all he wanted was to stay away from everything and everyone. He wanted peace, he wanted silence and he wanted-

"Hurry up!"

-a baseball bat and an axe and a plastic bag and a place to hide a body. Yeah, he needed all of that.

The raven took a few steps forward pulling the blonde harshly with him. He found the key on his short's pocket and used it to open the door to his apartment. As he entered, he wondered if he should tell Naruto the rules before something else, but he decided against it. It had been a long day, and Sasuke was sure he didn't nor the time nor the patience to lecture his teammate. The blonde was old enough to know that kind of things. He hoped.

His beliefs were shattered when the Uzumaki didn't lose any time in throwing his backpack carelessly on the floor. He scowled at him, but the boy didn't notice. He was focused on looking around the flat. Now that he thought of it, he never really had any guests. Sure, Kakashi came from time to time, but it was more like barging since the jounnin always came through the window and uninvited. He had try to kick him out multiple times, but they all failed. he never really _invited_ anyone. So he wasn't surprise when Naruto started exploring his apartment with his gaze.

"Whoah..."

It was certainly cleaner than his own. In the furthest end of the room was the kitchen and in the wall to the right there was a door that most likely lead to Sasuke's room. Now they were on the living room. There was a T.V. infront of a couch, and with book shelves at it's sides. From what he'd seen from outside, there must be a balcony somewhere. Yeah, it was big. Perfect for two people.

"Nice place you got here, bastard. How come you never invited us?" he asked curiously.

"I don't need you to make a mess of things." he explained dryly, earning an exagerated scoff from the blonde.

"You said that as if I'm some sort of-"

"Yes, you are."

"Hey! I didn't even fini-!"

"You don't have to."

"Let me talk!"

Kakashi, who had make himself comfortable on Sasuke's couch, watch a both boys started to quarrel for what it seemed to be the hundredth time that day. He shook his head in dissapointment. Honestly, he couldn't believe this children. If they couldn't even have a decent talk without it ending on an argument, how would they be able to cook, clean, and/or sleep together? He didn't know, but he couldn't do anything about it. He had tried, for months now, to make this boys work as a team. He thought he did it when Sakura told him how they defeated the thieves, but he was wrong. Apparently, they were only able to accomplish that stunt because their teammate's life was in danger. It was a nice motivation and all, but he couldn't keep a kunai pressing against Sakura's neck all the time just so the boys could get along. It would be tiring and illigal. No, there had to be something else he could motivate them with. Their own sake apparently wasn't enough.

"Isn't the host supposed to take care of his guests?!"

"A host isn't a babysitter. You'll be cleaning after yourself."

Suddenly, an idea popped in Kakashi's head, and he couldn't help but chuckle. Yeah, that would be enough motivation. His children will defintely have a lot of fun doing that. Especially if they still didn't want to work together.

"Alright!" he exclaimed loudly, getting the boys' attention. "I think I'll be living now." Both children turned to look at their sensei. Naruto's brows furrowed in confusion.

"You are not staying?" he asked. Kakashi smiled underneath his mask. He started walking to the door. "Nope. I figure you two would want some _privacy_." None of them missed the sly tune in which he said it and none of them like it.

That was the kind of voice a pervert used when he was talking to a couple. According to Naruto. Sasuke, on the other hand, knew that the comment had a double meaning, but not the kind Naruto thought. _Kakashi is planning something_. Whenever you hear someone like their sensei talk like that you better run.

"What do you mean?" asked the Uchiha suspiciously.

"Exactly that." he said cheerfully. "I don't think either of you will appreciate me watching you as you bath." He almost laughed at the blank looks his students were giving him. "It's late and I think you two need a bath, which I think you'll have to take together for obvious reasons." he gestured vaguely at their joined hands. "And not mention that I think it will be a 'you do mine, I do yours' kind of situation." Now he understood why Iruka had laughed in the office earlier that day. "So, I'm leaving! Have fun washing each other's hair. Oh! And don't forget to discuss on which side of the bed you're sleeping Naruto! Because I think you'll be sharing as well. Later!"

The man raised a hand, waving goodbye as he exited the house, leaving the boys to their luck. Call him a pervert, but he would have like to stay and watch. Imaging both children in the same tube cleaning each other's hair was hilarious. It would probably end up in a fight, which would probably include splashes of water and someone slipping because of said liquid. He chuckled. It was hard to fight with someone at the same time you are holding his hand. He would know. He had done it once. One of Guy's challenges. Anyway, the boys will probably kill themselves if they choose to fight in the tube. _Such a honorable death, indeed,_ he thought. Well, he _had_ tried _._ Now it was all on their hands.

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Sasuke wasn't a stranger to sharing baths. As much as he wanted to forget, he once had an older brother. A kind and gentle one. The type of brother that would allow his little sibling to bath with him after a hard mission. The type that would rub his back as he poured water on his head. The type that would wrap him on a fluffy towel when done and carry him to the elder's room for a blissfull sleep. The type that would always love him. The type that wouldn't do anything to hurt his little brother. The type... _No_! He mentally slapped himself as he noticed where his thoughts were carring him. He gritted his teeth slightly in frustration. He _hated_ this. It was stupid.

"Uh... Uh... Ugh..." The sound of Naruto's strangled voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He turned to look at the blonde, who appeared to be about to throw up or faint, and was reminded of their current situation. _Ah... Yes. I have to bath with the idiot._ The idea alone disgusted him.

Yeah, he used to bathed with Itachi. _Used_. That was like four or five years ago. Heck, he even stop using the tube and started taking showers. The point was, he didn't enjoy it as much as he did in the past. And he certainly wouldn't enjoy it if it was with that idiot. That would be disgusting and awkward. The blonde caught his attention again as he talked.

"Ooookaay..." he dragged the word slowly before a smile bursted on his face. "So, where is the bathroom?" Before he could answer, the Uzumaki was already pulling the raven with him as picked up his backpack and started roaming over the place. "I didn't pack any shampoo so I guess I'll have to use your's."

"What!?" exclaimed Sasuke in bewilderment. "Are we actually doing it!?" His blue-eyed teammate smile as they walked down the hallway to the bathroom.

"Come on! We already pee together. How is taking a bath any different? We're both boys anyway." he said not a bit uncomfortable as they stopped infront of one of the two doors in the hall. "Is it here?"

The Uchiha couldn't believe it. He actually didn't mind! Sure, they were both males and they've already seen each other's... ahem, junior. But still! _Don't be ridiculous, is not as if he has something you don't. Besides, it will just be for a few minutes. You can even ask him to leave his boxers on! Is either this, or going to bed dirty. Your pick._ The rational part of his head was, as always, correct. He wasn't going to sacrifice a bath just because of Naruto. So when the blonde entered the small room Sasuke followed him willingly.

"So, where do I put the cloth?"

"On the corner."

As the Uzumaki moved to take his headband off, realization hit Sasuke with full force. ' _Have fun washing each other's hair.'_ How was he supposed to clean himself with just one hand? And how will Naruto wash himself when he couldn't use his dominant right? Dread washed over him when he realized Kakashi _wasn't joking_. The raven was sure that he could clean himself with little trouble, he didn't know about Naruto. He looked at the blonde, who was struggling to get his pants off his ankles.

"Finally!" he shouted as he kicked the piece of cloth to the corner with his jacket and shirt. "I'm ready!" he turned to Sasuke and frowned. "Are you bathing with all of that on?" he pointed to the Uchiha that was still in the process of untying his headband.

The raven looked down at himself and then to Naruto again with a blank expression.

"Can you wash yourself with just one hand?" His comrade made a confuse face.

"Huh?" he eyed the chakra ball. "Well, I think the only problem would be my hair and back. The rest is okey." It probably wasn't the answer his teammate wanted, considering the long, suffering sigh the Uchiha gave.

"Figures."

* * *

"Stop splashing water, will you!? You're making a mess!"

"I wouldn't splash if you were doing your job!"

"It's not my job to wash you, idiot, I'm not your babysitter! Now, hold still!"

The blonde let out a growl and _tried_ to do what Sasuke told him, which was hard because he was getting shampoo on his eyes. Seriously, how did the bastard expected him to hold still when he never stopped squirming with Iruka-sensei? They were few, and a long time ago, but the times his teacher actually help him take a bath when he was eight, the bathroom would be more like a lake by the time they finished. But at least Iruka never let shampoo get into his eyes!

"Hey, be careful!" he yelled as he felt the person behind him pulling his hair _a little bit_ hard.

"Shut up or I'll pull harder." was the dry answer.

Sasuke was never a patient person. He never had to. His brother was the patient one. How did he do it? He had no idea. With bath, for example. There were a couple of times in which Sasuke had refused to bath when his mother told him and only Itachi had been able to convince him otherwise. Most of the times with the excuse of bathing together. It had work, he did bath, but not without moving, a lot. And yet, Itachi had been able to summon all the patience in the world to wash him properly. Now, Sasuke was facing the same situation, but with an _overgrown_ baby that was nothing like him.

He murmured darkly as tapped Naruto's shoulder, gesturing him to tilt his head to the right. They had gotten into the tube half an hour ago and they were _still_ not finish. Why? Simple, Naruto couldn't stop moving! The blonde had _tried_ to do his own hair, but, as most things the idiot _tried_ to do, he failed. That's the _only_ reason why Sasuke was sitting behind his teammate, in the tube, washing his hair. They had managed to twist their arms so their chakra covered hands were resting between the Uchiha's crossed legs and the Uzumaki's lower back. The raven had hoped absently that the water will somehow help dissolve the chakra, but he stopped when he realized it would mean he'll had to clean that stuff off the tube. Anyway, he had bigger problems now. Like making the blonde stay still for one damn minute!

After deeping his hand on the soapy water, he lifted it to Naruto's head one more time. His fingers moved through the yellow hair, scratching the scalp, gently getting rid of the dirt and filth. After repiting the action for a few minutes, he felt the blonde slowly relaxing under his touch, his constant squirming coming to a halt. The Uchiha smirk to himself, satisfied. If he hurry they would finally get out of the tube in a few minutes and they could start dressing. The water wasn't as warm as it was when they started bathing, so he personally didn't mind getting out of there as fast as possible. Taking another handful of water, he pressed his hand to the side of the blonde head, rubbing it up and down. He moved his fingers to the back of his teammates ear and was surprised when the boy leaned against his hand. _Maybe we really aren't that different..._ He remembered doing the same thing when Itachi bathed him. He remembered the feeling of having his head massaged. He remembered the warmth of another body and the comforting prescence. He remembered that smile filled with brotherly love and affection... He remembered his brother.

And it was disgusting.

He remembered the blood covering the walls and floor. He remembered the smell of death filling his nostrils. He remembered the hateful crimson red eyes staring at him with unnerving emptiness, no trace of emotion left in them. He remembered the saddeness, confusion, pain, agony, anger, and... hatred. He remembered everything so clearly. His bastard of a brother made sure he did. He made sure to torture him, to scar him, and to...

"Hey! watch it!" His train of thought came crashing down as Naruto let out a pathetic whimper. "Ouch! That hurts, bastard!" The blonde lifted a hand of his own and placed it on Sasuke's wrist. "Let go!"

What was the idiot whining about? It wasn't until the Uzumaki touched him that realized what was going on. He had been so focused on his thoughts around Itachi that he had forgotten his other task. The hand laying on Naruto's head was securely fisted around a few locks of golden hair, pulling them painfully from the root. He let go slowly, to the teen's relief.

"Finally!" he sighed as he rubbed that particular spot on his head. "What happened to you so suddenly, anyway? I swear I wasn't moving! Sasuke!?" He turned his body to the right so he wouldn't be stretching his arm to much (which was twisted behind his back, by the way). What he saw surprised him.

The boy sitting behind him was still. His only free hand was holding his knee so tightly that it was shacking. His head was bowed, making wet bangs fall over his face, hidding his eyes from the blonde. If this was intentional or not, he didn't know. But he didn't like it either.

"Sasuke?" He turned his body completely. Now sitting face-to-face with him. He raised his left hand and placed it on Sasuke's stiff shoulder. "Are you okey?" A pale hand swatted his tanned one away as soon as those words left his mouth. He recoiled hesitantly.

"Sasu-"

Before he was able to finish, the Uchiha rose from his spot, bringing Naruto up with him. Their boxers were soaking wet as they got out of the cold water and stepped outside the tube. The blonde followed him silently. He didn't speak as they took off their boxers in order to dry themselves with the towels nor and when Sasuke gestured him to pick his clothes before they exited the room. The feeling of having miss something ever present in Naruto's mind.

 **Share your thoughts please! No flames!**


	4. Which side of the bed?

**Inspiration hit me! Here is the next one! Thank you followers and** **HxH KiruGon Fan I really appreciate. Please tell me if I made any spelling and/or grammar mistakes! Thanks everyone! And something else! In case this chapter offends anyone, please know beforehand that I'm sorry. I never meant to make anyone feel bad. The only reason I wrote that scene was because I wanted to add a funny argument in the chapter. So please don't flame. Really. Oh and I change rating because of the language. I suck at rating as much as I suck in titles. I feel this one crappy.**

It was funny really. Maybe because he had never expected it.

During this time of year, emotions and memories will wash over him resentlessly. Almost anything would trigger it. _Anything_. It could be something as stupid as the smell of tiger lillies, the scent of his mother. Or as big as the sight of someone injured, blood had been very common that night. And with those 'flashbacks' feelings came. Sometimes small like shivers up his spine. Other times he would just want to throw up, no matter where he was. He would feel the hatred boiling up his stomach. That burning sensation coursing through his veins, fueling him like the adrenaline, was indescribable. It was like a drug. It was harmful at the same time it healed him. He needed it. And when it came he didn't stop it. But everytime he had those... 'episodes', he was never around people.

He would try and kill himself with training. He would grab every breakable object from his house and throw it against the wall. He would go to the graves and mourn in silence until midnight. He would be alone all the time. _That's_ the way he did it, and _that's_ the way he liked it. _Naruto_ wasn't included. He _certainly wasn't._ And yet here he was!

The reason he was never around _anyone_ on this week was pretty simple. He _hated_ being weak. He couldn't stand it when people saw him so vulnerable. So emotional. Uchiha's weren't emotional. They were cold, impassive, and stoic. If his father could see him... But that wasn't the point. That wasn't the funny thing. Although it was hilarious. He had always wanted to match Itachi's poker face, ever since he was six. And now he let himself go as much as he wanted. Because this was the only time of the year he would allow it. Still, this wasn't what was funny.

 _Naruto_ was the funny thing. Or at least, he was one of the reasons it was funny. Why? Because he was what he never expected. He was the x factor.

He knew he would have to stand the blonde the whole week. He knew he would have to deal with him. He knew he couldn't afford any 'episodes' with the idiot around. What he didn't know was that Naruto himself could be a trigger. A good trigger, you could say. All of the memories that came to his mind with each episode were the kind you could confuse with nightmares. They always were. Until Naruto. Naruto and the bath.

Eight out of ten memories would include Itachi. The cold, heartless, red-eyed Itachi that murdered his entire clan and tortured his little brother. Never, not even once, did he remember the kind and gentle older brother he once had. He never had. Not until Naruto came. He made him remember. He had dug into the depths of his psyche to unearth the old memories of his adored sibling. Those seem to hurt more than the bloody ones. But he couldn't blame the idiot. He didn't know. But _still_.

He was getting out of track. One simple action. One movement of the head, was all it took the blonde to make him remember. _That_ was the funny thing.

You can call it ridiculous or childish, but for him, it was _funny_. Funny and angering at the same time, because he didn't _want_ to remember. He _couldn't_ think of Itachi as another human being. He just _couldn't_. And who's fault was it? The idiot's. It was unfair , and he knew that, but he couldn't help it. Right now, sitting with the blonde, he couldn't help but blame him. Blame him for tilting his head against him. Blame him for making him remember. Blame him for being an idiot.

See? Funny.

Naruto didn't think it was funny. It was confusing. Like 'big-headache' kind of confusing. He wasn't that much of a thinker, and he didn't mind accepting it. He rather act. There was no need to give things that much thought. Unless you were dealing with an _Uchiha_. More specifically, _Sasuke Uchiha_.

He had to bite back a growl. Why were Uchihas so difficult? They were worse than the girls. Like Shikamaru says! Troublesome! There was no way whatsoever to know, for certain, what they were thinking and/or feeling. Sometimes it was because of that annoying blank mask they always put. Other times they would get angry at you for no reason. Like now! What the hell did he do!? How was he supposed to know, anyway!? Was it because he made a mess of the bathroom!? Or because he couldn't wash his own hair!? What was it!? How was he suppose to not do it again when he didn't even know what he was suppose to not do!? What did Sasuke think!? That he read minds!? That was Ino's job, not his!

Yeah... 'big-headache' kind of confusion.

But if the bastard thought that will stop him he was wrong! Nothing stops Naruto Uzumaki! Especially Sasuke Uchiha. No sir! No matter how awkward things could get. Like now.

They were currently sitting on Sasuke's couch in the living room. Their hair was still wet and the only thing they were wearing aside from boxers was their pijama shirt. Usually, Natuto would be using his whole pijama, but in the rush of packing things up and arguing with Sasuke he had totally forgotten to pack the whole set. This was unfortunate, of course,because the night was _freezing_. The Uchiha had taken two bento boxes from one of the cupboards in the kitchen, which were now placed on their laps as they ate their content. Naruto, of course, was talking non-stop about the first time he tasted ramen. Taking the oportunity to complain about the lack of his favorite plate at dinner time. He had tried to warm up some water for his instant ramen cups, but the raven had just scowled and swatted his hand away whenever he got close to the pitcher.

That didn't stopped him from complaining though.

What he didn't know, was that Naruto's constant chatter wasn't annoying. In fact, the background sound of his teammate's voice was somehow soothing. Don't get him wrong, he still blamed him, but there was something... nice about having someone else sitting beside him. Naruto hadn't mention his switch of personality on the bathroom. So he either forgot, or didn't want him to feel awkward. Whatever it was, he appreciate it. Right now, all he wanted was to trash his apartment and then clean it in the morning just so he could trash it later. The problem was that it wouldn't be such an easy task with just one hand. Suddenly, he wasn't hungry anymore.

He put down the chopsticks and glanced at the blonde. He was still eating and talking at the same time he was watching T.V. Heh... Who knew the idiots could be multitasking?

"... And he said no! The bastard said no! I mean, I saved his stupid arse and that asshole couldn't even buy me a bowl of ramen!"

"Naruto..."

"It isn't that expensive! And it was just one bowl!"

"Naruto?"

"Can you believe it!? Apparently one ramen from Ichiruka isn't worth his life!"

"Hey, idiot!"

"And then- What!?"

"You done?" The blonde looked his empty bento box and nodded with a smile. "Let's go to sleep then."

None of them noticed how late it was. They spend at least one hour bathing and another hour eating and they got here at eight, so it was probably ten p.m. Kakashi had said he would drop by tomorrow's morning, (that's a first) and he _really_ didn't want their sensei watching them sleep on the same bed. The bath had been bed enough already. Which reminded him...

"Left or right?" he asked as they placed the boxes on the table infront of them.

"What?"

"The bed." he explained, annoyed. "Which side do you want? Left or right?" Sasuke stood up, bringing Naruto with him, and they started walking towards the Uchiha's bedroom.

"Hmm... I guess I'll take the right." he eyed their joined hands.

As they stepped into the room, Naruto realized how much of a good choice Sasuke's house was for two people. [is the same room where Sasuke was after he talked to the sound 4] On the right wall was a glass door leading to the so called balcony. There were shelves with more books and a little T.V. on top of a small table. There was the bed against the left wall and a large window with a perfect view of the village. There was a small closet and some other furniture. Yep, perfect for two people.

Naruto was too busy checking out the room, that he when he felt Sasuke moving towards the bed, he had dumbly followed. The raven started pulling the covers from the comfort, adjusting the pillows so both of them could fit. As he finished his task, something caught the Uzumaki's attention. Something sitting on the night stand.

"I guess that's it." said the Uchiha as he study his work on the bed. "Get in- Hey!"

Before he could react, Naruto was jumping over the bed, dragging Sasuke with him. The blonde sat back on his haunches as he reached out to grab the photo frame resting on top of the piece of furniture. He was staring absently at the picture when a very pissed Sasuke took it from his hand and placed it inside one of the drawers. He was forced to turn around as his teammate plopped [?] down on the bed rather harshly. He turned his head away from him, but that obviously didn't stopped Naruto from teasing him.

"Oooooohhhh!" he cooed. "Sasuke, you bastard!" he exclaimed fondly. "I knew you care! Wait 'till I tell Sakura-" A pillow came to hit him square on the face. "Hmpf!" He was about to get up and give Sasuke a piece of his mind when he felt said person pushing him back down again. The bastard was sitting on top of his stomach, using the pillow to hit him again and again.

"Hey!" Smack. "Bastard!" Smack. "Get off!" Smack.

As the blows kept coming, Naruto used his legs to push Sasuke's body off him and to the side. In a second, _he_ was the one on top. He took the pillow and reciprocate. He only managed a few before the Uchiha smacked him on the side of the head.

"Hey!" The raven pushed him to the side but didn't move to pin him down again. He simple through an arm over his eyes and grunted. "What was that for!?"

"Shut up." was the short reply. The blonde huffed and thought about yelling, but choose against it. He was tired and he really didn't feel like arguing. So he simple glared and rolled to his side, back facing the Uchiha and arms tugged on close to his chest, forgetting about their joined hands. He didn't realize that at doing so he would be dragging his comrade with him. Now, they were both laying back to back, Sasuke's left arm angled across the blonde's waist.

At the feeling of having the boy so close, bright blue eyes moved to meet dark onyx ones with equal amount of surprise. They held each other's gaze for three seconds before screaming and scrambling away from each other as fast they could with their hands together. When they were a fair distance apart (both on their respective sides of the bed) they looked at each other again and frowned in disgust. Naruto broke the silence.

"Geez, bastard! I know you care for me, but there's no need to get all touchy!"

"What!?" shouted the Uchiha bewildered.

"I know it most be new for you." he said calmly as he sat crossed legged on bed's edge. "And I'm sorry for what I'm about to tell you, but you are really not my type." Sasuke's face was hilarious. "Its completely understandable, because I _am_ adorable, but I don't think it would be correct considering our age and-"

"What the hell are you talking about!?" he knew what he was talking about, and it was a really bad joke. "Quit joking like that moron! It gives me the creeps!" The blonde exploted in laughter, making Sasuke's right eye twitch in irritation. He really, really, really, _really_ , couldn't stand this guy.

"Sasuke, you are screw-able!" exclaimed his guest as he crawled under the blankets, ready to go to sleep. "Turn off the lights, will you?" he said happily as he closed his eyes facing him. The Uchiha raised his chin.

"Fine. If that's what you want." First, he was resting on the bed, then he was being pulled out of it and dragged to where the light switch was. "Hey!"

"Wherever I go, you go, idiot. At least for the week." he slapped the switch down before turning again, with growling Naruto following him.

The futon was unbelievably soft when both gennin lay down on it. The raven pulled the duvet from the end of the bed and brought it up to cover both their bodies. The blue-eyed boy let out a sigh and snuggled deeper into the warm clothe. He liked to be sprawled all over the bed when sleeping, but after the few times Iruka had slept with him after a nightmare, he learned how to be sprawl _just_ on his side. They were both facing the roof, surpringly at ease with each other's presence. They didn't know how, but having someone there by their side was relaxing. The sound of constant breathing and the rhythm of a beating heart was soothing. The chilly breeze coming through the slightly open window, gave them a reason to move closer to each other.

They closed their eyes simultaneously, allowing themselves fall down on a sleep that would later on be meet by horrible dreams filled with blood, screams and death. But none of them knew. None of the, knew how lucky they were to have someone there with them that night. They didn't know that in the middle of the night, when they will wake up screaming, they would have a shoulder to cry on. For the first time.

 **Share your thoughts please! No flames!**


	5. Night terror

**Hello world! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry I didn't update. I just didn't know how to start this chapter and I ended up writting the sixth one. Anyway!**

 **PLEASE READ!:**

 **I'm tired of all the spelling mistakes I have, so I'm formally asking all of you if you would want to be my beta. Anyone who's first language id English please help me I really want to improve my writting and Google translator isn't that trustworthy. Please PM me if you are interested. I would really appreciate the help. Thank you and enjoy!**

Night went on peacefully on The Hidden Leaf. The moon shone brightly on the black sky. Couples slept together in eachother's arms. Children were tucked safely on their beds, dreaming about adventures and gmaes. The fresh wind against the trees was a soft lullaby that comforted everyone in the village.

Everyone, but one.

In one particular bedroom, in the dead of the night, lay a raven haired boy with his eyes open and wide awake. The blanket was pulled up to his chest, his right arm on top of it, and his hand fisted around the fabric. There, sleeping beside him, was another boy, around the same age he was. Blonde hair and tanned, his left arm drapped over his close eyelids.

Sasuke's gaze was focused on the ceiling, his mouth was pressed in a thin line and his eyebrows were furrowed in a small scowl. He had been up for... what? One hour? Yeah, one hour the least. Sleep kept running away from him in a strange case of insomnia. Everytime he closed his eyes, images of his previous dream assaulted his mind. Flashes of dead people spread all over the floor, blood tainting the walls, and cold murderous red eyes were presented to him like a movie. The feeling of dread and, dare him say, fear, were permanently settled on his heart, making him flinch at the smallest of sounds and movements. It was a miracle he didn't wake up screaming.

Nightmares were scaringly frequent on his life. He had them at least five times a month, but considering how close the anniversary was... Let's just say this was gonna a long week, all factors included. This was just another reason as to why having Naruto here was even more troublesome. When he was alone, he could rage, scream, and cry freely. With the blonde, he had to keep himself at check. He couldn't be weak. He couldn't be seen like that. He _couldn't_.

Baring his teeth in an annoyed growl, he ripped his eyes from the roof and turned to look at his teammate. Naruto was dead to the world. His mouth was opened, allowing some quiet snores leave him and his chest raised and fell with each breath he took. He was the perfect picture of serenity and Sasuke couldn't help but feel calm as well.

It was oddly comforting, watching the blonde sleep that is. The Uchiha had shared a bed with him in the past and knew how much Naruto tends to move on his slumber. Today was different though. He was completely still... which disturbed him a little. The picture of Naruto, laying on the floor, perfectly still and covered in blood made his breath hitch and he shook his head to get rid of it. No! No. He _was not_ going in _there_.

With another huff, he closed his eyes, determined to go to sleep for once and for all, but a weak sound stopped him. He flinched and turned his head back to the blonde.

* * *

 _Darkness._

 _It was the first thing he saw... darkness._

 _He hated darkness. That blackness that surrounded the world, covering it with nothingness. Bad things came out of it. He learned that at a young age. It was a perfect place to hide in. A perfect place to wait for your prey. The poor victim couldn't see the blasted predator stalking him. The prey was hopeless, alone in the darkness with his killer._

 _That's how he felt right now, standing in the darkness. He was sure something was going to come out and attack him. He wouldn't be able to defend himself. He never could. He never had. Those... things always came to hunt him in groups. One of them would hold his arms behind his back so he couldn't move. Another would hit his stomach and the last one would use a kunai. Most of the times they would spit out insults. Rage laced words that were meant to stab him like a knife. A voice inside his head would scream at him sometimes, telling him to fight back. But he couldn't._

 _After they accomplished their goal, their blood thirst finally satiated, he would stand up and walk all the way back to his apartment. Back to his safe place. He wouldn't go to the hospital, they would ask questions and he didn't want that. All the way he would hold his chin up, trying to look normal as he walked through the streets full with people. Streets fill with glares and murmurs that he would ignore. His apartment was waiting. There he would lay on his bed with a first aid kit. He could treat his own injuries, lick his own wounds. The voice in his head would quiet and all the cuts and bruises would dissapear by the next day. Then, the hunt will start all over again._

 _Why. That was the only thing he didn't understand. Why? What had he done to them? Was it because they just didn't like him? Was it because of his pranks? He had asked 'why' during the first hunts, but he would rather forget the answers. The voice in his head would whisper to him, saying 'that's how humans are' but there was no comfort on its comments. It would speak with such contempt and digusted and knowledge. Almost as if it was talking from past experiences. The voice would always be there but he couldn't answer, he didn't know how. It was a one side conversation._

 _Later on he learned what that voice was. The reason as to why they hunt him became clear. They hunt him because he was a fox. And what do you do with foxes? You hunt them. Why? Because it was fun. Because they wanted revenge. Somehow, in their twisted, sadistic minds, hurting a child was avenging the death of a loved one. Apparently, it wasn't important what the container may suffer as long as they could hurt what was inside. That's how it was. That's what was happening right now._

 _He heard movement a long time ago, and he ran, like any prey, trying to get away from the predator. He ran, and ran without really knowing where he was heading to. It didn't matter, as long as he could get away._

 _The darkness around him slowly vanished, giving shape to the streets he knew by heart. The loud footsteps were so close that he pushed his legs to run faster towards the Hokage's Office. There he could hide, there he would be safe, there-_

 _Invisible arms grabbed him and scream. Claws dug on his arms and four figures materialized infront him. Kakashi sensei, Iruka sensei, Sasuke and Sakura were staring at him with emotionless eyes. Their stances were calm, almost as if they didn't care the monsters caught him._

 _He screamed their names. He begged them. He begged them to save him, to not leave him alone. All his pleas felt on deaf ears as they slowly turned around and walk away. One by one they vanished, and arms around him grew stronger. Why were they doing that?_ _ **Why!?**_ _He was their friend! He was their comrade! You were not suppose to leave your comrades! After all he did for them, after all the love he gave them, they were ditching him. Why!? Why? Why..._

 _Tears fell down his cheeks, as the last one remaining was Sasuke. Naruto stared at him, pleading him. He was his last hope._ _ **Please, Sasuke...**_

 _Ultimately, he scoffed and leave. Just like everyone else. His chest couldn't hurt any more and bowed his head on defeat. That's how it was. No matter how much the rey fought and struggled for his life, the predator would always get to him. He would shred him and kill him. No matter how much did the prey suffered._

 _The familiar coldness of solitude washed over him as the arms pulled him further into the darkness. He was alone. He was alone and all he could do was scream as images flashed before his eyes. Konoha destroyed, hundreds of corpses, and a burning sharingan._

 _He screamed._

* * *

"Naruto! Naruto, wake up!"

Blue eyes opened with a gasp and half his body shot up to a sitting position. His hand curled into a fist and he couldn't get enough air into his lungs. Cerulean orbs moved frenetically all over the room, his panicked mind trying to comprehend were he was.

A warm hand was placed on his shoulder and concerned voice was heard.

"Naruto. Naruto, what happened?"

His eyes were finally able to meet those of his savior, the owner of the hand and the voice. A boy. Raven hair with pale skin and black eyes. Funny... Have they meet? He was sure he knew him from somewhere. Were they friends?

"Answer me, idiot."

Ah... Sasuke. Now he remembered. That's how Sasuke called him, that and 'loser'.

"Are you okey?"

Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out... Like Iruka-sensei taught him. When you were agitated you were supposed to breath in and out in regular patterns so you could control your breathing and therefore your nerves. Ninja couldn't be nervous. If they were they would screw up the mission. They had to be calm, and how did you do that? You breath in and breath out.

He repeated the motion a few more times, he didn't stop until he felt like he was breathing instead of panting. Now that he was calm, he became more aware of his surroundings. He was in the bastards house. There was a small moment in which he wondered just how did he ended up in there, but when he tried to move his right hand the answer was given to him. He remembered the mission and how the Hokage told them they would have to live together for a while. He remembered the bath and the small fight he had with Sasuke when he found the picture of Team 7 on his nightstand. He remembered they went to sleep and... Oh, crap.

Slowly he turned his head towards the Uchiha. The boy was looking at him, confused, worried, with no idea on what to do... and awake.

They held eachother's gaze for one minute before Naruto broke the eye contact, rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand and giving Sasuke a bashful smile. He let go of his shoulder.

"He, he... Sorry." He said with fake embarrasment. "I... didn't wake you, did I?" The raven stare at him hard, probably thinking how to proceed.

"No." He finally answered. "No, I was already awake."

What was the idiot doing? Just when he was finally going back to sleep the blonde had started whimpering. At first he thought Naruto was just pretending but when the room begun to fill with screams he realized he was having a nightmare. The thrashing and yelling and moaning was all too familiar, and he did the first thing that came to his mind. He tried to wake him up. He shook his shoulder, called his name, and smacked him on the head at some point. It obviously worked, but he couldn't call it a victory yet, for there was something worse that came after waking up. The nightmare's aftermath.

He would know about that. It was the point when you were laying on your bed, trying to calm yourself with no one else but your thoughts to keep you company. Except... he was there, Naruto wasn't really alone, which was what scared him the most. He had no problem in dealing with his nightmares, but he was pretty stupid when it came to _other_ people's dreams. What was he suppose to do? Well first he had to try and calm them. It took probably five minutes for the blonde to control his erratic breathing and to finally face him. He thought about talking to him but Naruto beat him to it, which surprised him. The idiot was acting as if it was nothing! It was certainly something _he_ would do, but it certainly wasn't something _Naruto_ would do... Or mayor he just didn't know the blonde as good as he thought he did. After all, he never even _thought_ about Naruto having a nightmare before. It seemed... wrong.

"Oh! Okey!" The Uzimaki said cheerfully. "Guess I'm going back to sleep now. So good-"

"Naruto." The blonde cringed and Sasuke was surprised on how much he sounded like his father with that voice.

"Yeah?" Naruto looked at him with what he assumed was innocence.

The raven's eyes never leave him. There were two options: talk to him or go to sleep. If he talked to him, there was a high pobrability his teammate would end up crying and he didn't want that. He knew he was thinking like a jerk, but there was no way he would be able to handle tears (He could bearly handle his own). Not to mention, it was personal. Dreams were made in one's mind. Goals, secrets, fears, emotions, were poured into them, creating a master piece that could either torment you or put you in the top of the world. Nightmares were particularly intimate. If there was something people held dearly, it was their fears, their insecurities. All of them were reflected on the nightmare and talking about them to anyone would be like telling them your secrets. It would be awkward, for Naruto and himself.

He could go to sleep and ignore the whole thing, but there was the high probability the blonde would fall into another nightmare or not sleep at all. If you back to sleep with that discomfort, the nightmare would come again, probably stronger and bigger. Of course, most people (like himself) couldn't even close their eyes after a night terror. The fear, though faint, was still there. It would be like going into a forest knowing there were wild animals. He couldn't let Naruto go in there. He wasn't heartless and just because the guy was annoying it wasn't as if he hated him. Sasuke only hated one person.

He sigh inwardly. Well, he would have to go for the third option.

"Nevermind." He said. "Go to sleep."

Naruto most have been confused about his attitude, but Sasuke didn't care, he was making him a favor. He settled back into the mattress quietly and the blonde shuffled by his side. After a few minutes, there was a second body resting close to him.

The wind blew against the window, entering the room and none of them spoke. They were both lost on their thoughts, lost on their own nightmares. For some the silence would have been awkward, but not for them. They had recently found out silence between them wasn't really that uncomfortable. Most of the times, a Naruto would always fill it with meaningless chatter, but even now, that the boy didn't feel like talking, the quiet was nice. Sasuke never really felt the need for words so this was perfect for him. Besides, Naruto needed to collect his thoughts, and he couldn't do that in a noisy enviorment.

Time past by, and the Uzumaki broke the silence one more time.

"You awake, Sasuke?" They both knew he was, but they weren't supposed to.

"Yes." They kept the volume low, as if not to disturb the peace. "What is it?"

Naruto bite his lip, unsure if it was a good idea to ask. He wanted to know the answer though. He needed to. Maybe that way he could go to sleep. Inhaling deeply, he armed himself with courage and talked.

"If someone was after me, would you leave me or help me?"

Sasuke turned to look at the blonde clearly talent back by the question. Naruto meet his gaze and the Uchiha could have sworn they were filled with tears. He scowled.

"What kind of question is that?" He asked harshly as he watched his teammate flinch.

A pang of pain stabbed Naruto on the chest and he could feel the tears threating to escape. _Guess I should have known..._ He wasn't gonna cry infront of Sasuke. That was a pleasure he refused to give the bastard. He moved his head to face away from the raven when a voice, shockingly soft spoke.

"Of course I would help you."

He gasp and returned his gaze to Sasuke. Dark onyx eyes stared at him intently and the small gentle smirk the raven gave him was more than enough to make him grin. It was strange to see his teammate's softer side and the blonde couldn't help but feel flattered. Never did he thought the guy would try and be kind to him, probably he didn't know how much that sentence meant to him, but it didn't matter. The most important thing was that he said it.

 _That's all I wanted to hear._ He closed his eyes and leaned back on his pillow, ready to sleep. Sasuke followed his example.

And if Naruto pressed his face against Sasuke's shoulder at some point in the night no one had to know.

 **Hope you liked it! Review!**


	6. Morning,Sasuke!

**Hello world! There is a little fluff in this chapter. A little! Not much! Almost nothing! Sorry! But I promise there'll be more next chapter. Miso soup is a traditional breakfast in japon and its basically a stock called dashi with vegetables. Anyway! So I rewrote this because I hated the way it turned out at the beggining. Sorry! Thank you all my followers and HxH KiruGon Fan and yuvimonlegreat for reviewing! I always appreciate the support!**

* * *

The morning sun raised slowly over the mountains to proclaim his rightful place in the clearing sky. Darkness started fading, carrying the sleep of the land with it. Birds flew away from the safeness of their nests, sweet melodies pouring out from their peaks. Light shades of blue painted the heavens, and a vanishing fog cooled the earth. Conciousness settled within the minds of several shinobi, pushing them out from their beds and into daily work.

The Hidden Leaf was awakening, but instead of following its example, Sasuke Uchiha was trying his hardest to stay in bed.

Warm light floated over him like a falling veil. Steady, slow, and careful. A small, chilly breeze came through the window he assumed was open, which was weird. Hadn't he close the window yesterday, before going to sleep? Hhmmm... Whatever, it wasn't hurting anyone. The matress underneath him was so soft, almost cloud-like, just like the pillow in which he was resting his head on. A soft blanket was tucked around him and a soft pillow was pressed against his side.

He couldn't remember the last time he slept in. Ever since he was a kid, his father would tell him how important time was for a shinobi. A minute in battle could be the difference between life and death, you have to use it wisely. The earlier you wake up, the more hours you would have during the day, the more things you can do. Logical. Pratical. Today was different though.

Today, Sasuke Uchiha was willing to sleep for 'five more minutes'.

This was (for those who knew him best) outrageous.Lazyness wasn't his thing. He was a very active person, the opposite of Shikamaru Nara, but, like every person, he had moments. Moments in which all he wanted to do was to hold still and enjoy the present. His body would feel heavy and there wouldn't be any need of thinking. Just like now.

A sense of calm came to him with each breath of air and he couldn't think of anything that wasn't the softness surrounding him. His limbs felt heavy just like his eyelids and tiredness engulfed his body like a hug. With all the stuff that happened last night, Sasuke wasn't so sure how many hours of sleep he had. It shouldn't be surprising really. Naruto was tiresome when he was awake, it shouldn't be a wonder he was even more so when sleeping. _Talking about the idiot..._ How was he doing? It had been a rough night for both them, so he would understand if the boy wanted to sleep in (like him).

He creacked one eye open and let it drift towards the blonde's general direction. What he saw surprised him.

Naruto was there alright. The small rays of light that came from the slightly open window crashed down in him making his yellow hair 'shine'. His chest lifted and fell with each breath and soft snores came from his opened mouth. But the real shock for Sasuke, was the fact that Naruto was... _cuddling_ him? He couldn't think of a better word. The blonde head was resting on his left shoulder and the tanned body was pressed against his.

Now he was fully awake. What the hell was he doing? He knew Naruto always moved in his sleep but not like this. Did he look like a teddy bear you could snuggle with!? He was certain he didn't. Frowning, he turned his head as far away as he could from his teammates without moving the rest of his body. Seriously. What the hell? He lifted his right hand and placed it on Naruto's arm, completely determined to wake him up. He was stopped when saw the blonde's face. He was smiling. It was that kind of sleepy smile you get out of nowhere and that it sometimes freaks other people out, like Sasuke.

Watching the idiot right now, he couldn't help but compare him to the Naruto he saw last night. The nightmares really took a tow [?] in them and the scared, jumpy kid with teary eyes that had just woke up from a nightmare was no more. He was calm, and Sasuke, knowing perfectly well how tired one feels after a sleepless night, couldn't find it in him to disturb the blonde. Naruto was just as tired as he was, it wasn't fair to wake him. He was willing to over look the 'cuddle' thingy right now. _Just_ this once.

Backing his hand away to his original position, Sasuke closed his eyes again ready to go back to dreamland. Hmmm... It was so soft, so very cloud like soft. Since when was his bed so sof-

"Raaaaasssseeeeeennnnn!"

A foot collided against his hip followed by a smack on his chest. _What the-!?_

"Bring it on Sas...!" Shouted a slurred voice. _Ah._

"Naruto!" As the idiot turned to his left side, Sasuke was pulled with him.

"C'me on, cooowaaarr...!"

The next five minutes of Sasuke's wonderful morning were spend with the raven trying to wake Naruto without getting hit by all his twisting and thrashing [?]. For a second, the Uchiha thought the blonde was having another nightmare, but annoyance replaced worry after he realized the idiot was dreaming about fighting him. Somehow, they ended up with the blanket wrapped around them like a taco and it wasn't until they fell down to the floor that Naruto finally woke up.

With a yawn, the blonde opened his eyes sleeply.

"So you are finally up." Infront of him, was the angry face of Sasuke Uchiha, just a few inches away from his own. Their noses were touching and blue eyes widened at the closiness. The raven's glare intensified. "Idiot." His mouth opened and-

"Aaaaahhhhh!" They started rolling all over the floor, knocking against furniture, and never did Naruto stopped screaming bloody murder.

"Hey idiot! Stop moving!"

"Get away from me!"

"I said stop!" He managed to free one leg from the blanket and use it to kick the blonde just _a little_ below the gut. The rolling stopped with Naruto letting out a pathetic whimper and Sasuke on top of him, squirming out of the blanket.

When he was finally free, the blonde's hand flew to clutch his kicked stomach, murmuring a few words about 'pervy violent bastards'.

"Stop complaining." Ordered the Uchiha. "Get up. We have a breakfast to do." Using their chakra covered hand, the raven pulled his teammate to his feet.

"Breakfast?" Said the Uzumaki with his face still scrunched up in pain. "Hate to break to ya Sasuke, but I can't cook."

"Yeah well, neither do I." He answered, rolling his eyes in annoyance and waving thier joined hands. "That's why I need you. Cooking is a 'two-hands' job." He started walking towards the kitchen.

"Nooo" Naruto dragged the word. "I mean I really don't _know_ how to cook. The last time I tried using the stove for something that wasn't heating water for ramen my flat got on fire!" He explained as he followed Sasuke, who scoffed.

"Either you help me cooking or we don't eat at all." He looked at the blonde. "And no. We are _not_ eating ramen." Naruto threw him a dirty glare. "Besides, you won't be alone in the kitchen, you are cooking with me." They arrived at their destiny. "How hard can it be?"

* * *

"You are an _idiot_ at cooking."

"No kidding."

Sasuke wasn't a messy person. His mother taught him to be clean and organize, and he was greatful for that. He would always help her cleaning the house before he was put in the academy. Still, he always tried and kept his room neat so she wouldn't have to much work. Now that he think about it, no one in his family was messy. His father sometimes, but that was just because of the amount of paper work he brought from the police center. Other than that, the house had always been clean. He had followed the example his mother set him even after her death. Besides, he never like the mess.

And yet here he was.

"How the hell did you this?"

" _We_ did this, bastard. Together. A 'two-hands' job, remember?"

In the end, it didn't matter _who_ did it, but _how_ did it happened. It was supposed to be an easy breakfast. Just some rice balls and miso soup. Nothing too complecated. It was impossible that such an easy plate ended up exploting in half the kitchen.

Rice was spread over the whole floor. Dashi stock tainted the walls and ceiling, with some miso paste plastered in it. Vegetables were scattered everywhere, smashed tomatoes with onions and narutomakis made the floor even more slippery and dirty. There was even a small fire in the stove that Sasuke was quick to extinguish. All in all, it was a mess Mikoto wouldn't be proud of.

Sighing heavily, he glared at the blonde.

"This is your fault." Naruto, who had been staring at the kitchen with a weak scowl and pursed lips, turned to look at Sasuke.

" _Our_ fault bastard." He said dryly.

The raven's glare gain a considerable amount of heat, and for a minute he thought about smacking the idiot, but choose against it. He had bigger problems, cleaning this mess, for example.

"Well!" Exclaimed the Uzumaki happily. "Guess we're going out to eat then!" The boy turned around and made his way to the bedroom. "Let's go change and- Hey!" Sasuke pulled from their joined, stopping the blonde.

"We are _not_ moving from here until you clean this mess." Naruto's eyes widened, before a smirk came to his face.

"Sure thing!" That surprised the Uchiha. It was amazing his teammate gave in so easily, knowing him, it would have normally take a lot more yelling. "But let me remind you I'm terrible at cleaning and it will take a lot of time for an idiot like me to clean this, is a 'two-hands' job after all." If glares could kill, Naruto would have been burned alive and then stabbed multiple times.

Under normal circumstances, Sasuke would have walk away, but with their current predicament that was impossible. As much as he hated it, the fact was that he _had_ to help the blonde. Their hands were joined, they _needed_ eachother right now. Not to mention, he was hungry, and he didn't had the patience to wait until Naruto finish. It would be faster if he helped.

Sighing one more time he turned to the kitchen.

"Fine." Naruto chuckled.

* * *

After thrity minutes of cleaning, insulting, fighting and yelling, the kitchen strated looking decent. There were still some smashed vegetables here and there with some rice grains, but at least it wasn't as dirty as when they started. When they finished, Naruto suggested to bath, but Sasuke was already in a fuel mood for being in the tube again with the blonde.

They changed their clothes with a lot of effort, and managed to look presentable enough to go out in public. At the beggining, none of them thought it would be a good idea to wander around the village with their hands like that, but after listening to their stomaches growl for ten minutes they realized it was for the best. They were hungry, and after the breakfast fiasco Sasuke needed more supplementaries. It was just a quick trip to the market and to eat something at the tea house.

"Isn't that Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Isn't that Naruto?"

"What are they doing together?"

"Look at their hands! What is that thing?"

As they walked down the busy streets of the Hidden Leaf, the looks and murmurs didn't wait to make themselves known among the people. Just after they finished their breakfast they started making their way to the village's market area, a row of shops that sold all kinds of foods and supplies. People turned to watch them all the way.

Sasuke wasn't surprised. Two boys, one of them the heir of the Uchiha Clan and the other a knucklehead, walking side by side with their hands covered in some large grey ball as if they were holding them. It was a strange sight, indeed.

Luckily, he was an Uchiha, and if there was one thing the Uchiha were good at, was at ignoring people. He had practice, with all the fangirls that were constantly trailing behind him and all the annoying comments he was forced to deal with from almost everyone. In any case, the looks and murmurs, though stupid, didn't overly annoyed him. He was fine with them. He couldn't say the same thing about Naruto.

Watching the blonde from the corner of his eye, he noticed how uncomfortable the boy was. He kept biting his lip every so often, his blue eyes darting from left to right, ocacionally meeting someone's stare, just to flinch and turn to look away. His shoulders were hunched and his eyebrows furrowed in worry. Everything about him screamed insecurity.

Sasuke couldn't help but remember yesterday's night.

Just like back then, it felt so wrong to see Naruto like that. The idiot radiated confidence with that big mouth of his and those exagerated movements. It wasn't normal for him to be... scared. Now, Sasuke have seen him like that twice.

"That's very strange."

"What is that kid doing with the Uchiha?"

"What's with their hands?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes in deep annoyance. Didn't people had anything more important to do than to gossip around about two boys? How stupid. Well, at least they were already there. Taking out a list from his pocket, the raven looked around from shop to shop, searching the place that sold the vegetables he needed. Let's see... Ah! There it was, right next to the mask shop. Putting the list away, he turned to walk towards said place when his left hand was pulled back, stopping him. He hold back a sigh.

"Come on, Naruto." He called without turning. "We need to get the food." Pulling from his hand he realized the blonde wasn't budging. Annoyed beyond words, he twisted his head around so he could glare at his teammate, but was met by a surprising sight.

Naruto was standing stiffly, wide eyes never leaving the empty mask shop.

"Not here." He looked at Sasuke and the raven was sure he saw him tremble. "We can't buy the things here." His voice was almost pleading. "Let's go somewhere else." The Uchiha looked at him questionly, but Naruto averted his gaze. "There are plenty other shop we can go to." He tried resoning.

If Sasuke thought that the Uzumaki having nightmares was weird then this was even weirder. The idiot didn't want to go into a normal shop? Since when was he so picky about where did he got his food from?

"Don't be stupid." The raven scowled. "Let's go." He pulled from his hands again but Naruto wasn't moving.

"No." He said matching Sasuke's glare. "I'm not going in there." His voice was fiercer than it had ever been.

If they hadn't been in public a game of 'pulling-the-chakra-ball' would have started, but then again, there was people watching, even more than before. Of course, Naruto was just as uncomfortable, but his determination wasn't wavering, making Sasuke even more angry.

He mentally counted to ten in a fruitless effort to calm himself down. Of all the things he ever argue with the blonde this was probably on the most stupid. One of the ten more stupid. Who cares in which shop do they buy their things? Why did the idiot wanted to make a big deal out of this? Well, _he_ didn't want this to become a bigger deal. Not because of something so trival as shopping. He was more mature than that.

"Fine." He growled. "Let's go." He was letting the idiot win, _just this once._

Without looking at his teammate, Sasuke turned around and walked away from the 'oh-so-scary-shop', and made his way to the other side of the street.

Never did he noticed the way the sale man from the mask shop glared at Naruto or how the blonde recoiled until he was a few inches away from touching Sasuke. After all the Uchiha was pissed, and when the Uchiha are pissed is hard to get them to focused in anything that isn't 'being piss'.

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 **Longest chapter I've written! I think...**


	7. Ichiraku Ramen

**hello world! I am so sorry. I neglected this story a lot and I'm sorry. School started and now I only have weekends to write. So probably that's when I will update. I'm sorry again for the late transition chapter.**

* * *

Sasuke's left eye twitched in annoyance. He was sure he was developing a permanent tick.

"For the last time, we are not going to-"

"Why not!?"

"Because you are the only that likes that thing!"

Naruto glared at him with puffed cheeks and a childish pout, and Sasuke tried his hardest not to punch him. Taking a calming breath the Uchiha focused all his energy in scowling at the blonde.

"We have all the ingredients we need to make a proper meal at the apartment." He really didn't want to be seen around the village 'holding hands' with Naruto any more. The scene they did in the street attracted enough attention to make Sasuke want to stay hidden for a week, he didn't need any more.

Naruto huffed.

"In case you don't remember, Sasuke, _I don't know how to cook_. If we try to do that again we are just going to make a mess from the kitchen, _again_." He said rather flatly. Sasuke scowled at him a little harder.

"You are saying we shouldn't try something? _You?"_ The idea of starting a fight with the stove didn't particularly thrill the raven but if there was one thing that made Naruto Naruto was his stubborness. Not that Sasuke cared about the boy changing his perception of the world, it was just surprising. "I thought you made it your goal not to give up. Never." The blonde raised his chin defiently.

"Of course its my goal! I'll never give up! Believe it!" He turned his head away from Sasuke. "It's just that I never needed to cook before so I didn't bother to learn how to do it." He glared at him. "Because I always had Ichiraku Ramen! The most wonderful place in the world that kept me alive over the years and you're not letting me go there!"

The tick came back and Sasuke didn't know if he wanted to smack himself, or the idiot infront of him. He realized it was pointless. Naruto wasn't just an idiot he was a _childish_ idiot, wich meant the Uchiha will never be able to have civiled conversation with him. He had two options: he could drag the blonde back to the apartment by force and listen to him complaining the rest of the day; or he could go eat that stupid ramen and keep Naruto quiet for at least fifteen minutes. There was really no choice here.

He glared at the blonde as hard as he could before answering in the most clipped tune he could voice. "Just. This. One. Time."

"Yes!" Naruto grinned in triumph as he punched the air and practically run to the ramen stand, dragging Sasuke with him.

* * *

"Hey Teuchi!"

Sasuke didn't had anything against Ichiraku Ramen. He was use to go there with Team 7 and he recall going once with his mother. As a matter of fact, he liked the place. Everytime he went inside, there was some... atmosphere. Warmth from stove clouded the stand in a softly, the smell of homemade food everpresent, the kind service making you think you were in a simple family meal, rather than a restaraunt. He wasn't a fan for ramen like Naruto, but he must admit that he old man did knew how to cook. Everything about Ichiraku Ramen was homely. It was nice.

"Hey Naruto!"

The elderly man turned his attention from whatever he was cooking to greet both boys. His grandaughter (Ayame, wasn't it?) also smiled up at them.

"Sasuke! How nice to see you here." Said Teuchi cheerfully. "You want some ramen too?"

"Yes. Thank you." Contrary to popular belief, the Uchiha were taught some manners.

"Come on, take a sit."

They both complied, and Sasuke placed the bag of groceries on the bar.

"What would you like to order?" Asked the girl.

"Miso Ramen with extra pork!" Exclaimed Naruto happily.

Ayame turned to look at him questionly and Sasuke considered ordering just some rice balls, but he didn't want to be impoluto and insult Teuchi by not ordering the house especial. So he nodded towards the blonde sitting beside him and said.

"I'm having the same." He pointly ignored the way Naruto positively beamed at him and grabbed a pair of chopsticks.

"Two Miso Ramen with extra pork, coming right away!" Answered the girl before turning around and helping her grandfather prepare the dishes.

"So," Said the old man causually as he placed the noodles in hot water. "did you two finished any missions lately?"

"We did and it was horrible!" Exclaimed Naruto. Sasuke choose to let the blonde go on with the conversation on his behalf as he checked the groceries on the bag, making sure they had everything.

"Really? How so?" Asked the oldest teenager.

"Well for starters: take a look at this!" The Uzumaki raised his right hand, presenting the chakra to the both man and girl.

"Ewww! What's that!?" Asked Ayame, clearly disgusted as she stopped cooking to pay attention to the blonde.

"This is fuel chakra." Explained Naruto. "It's very sticky and when it hardens its a pain to dissolve."

"Sorry kid, but you lost me." Said Teuchi as he rubbed his chin. Sasuke choose that moment to talk.

"Its like gum." He said. "The man that threw it at us was a thief we ere supposed to stop from stealing a golden statue. In the end, it caught our hands and everytime we tried to pull free from it, it simply stretches. After we captured the thief he said it was supposed to wear off in three days. Today is day two."

"And you are stuck like that until it dissolves?" Asked Ayame as she turned around to add the pork to the noodle pot.

"Pretty much. I swear, it feels as if its getting harder instead of wearing off! I think the guy tricked us, believe it!"

"Well, I don't know what to tell you other than be patient." Said the old man as he assited his grandaughter. "Have you tried using hot water?"

"Yesterday, nothing happened." Answered Sasuke.

"I see." Teuchi poured the soup and noodles into two bowls. "I'm sorry I can't do that much about your hands, but, in the plus side, your ramen's ready!" He exclaimed happily as he serve both boys their meal.

"Thanks Teuchi!" As the bowl was placed infront of him, Naruto inmediately digged in, not waiting for Sasuke or for the soup to cool.

The Uchiha ate slowly, taking his time to savour the taste before swallowing. Yes, it was definitely homemade. Strange considering they were in a stand, but this family surely knew how to cook great food, the kind you would only expect your mother to give you.

Looking at the blonde as he asked for another bowl, Sasuke realized that perhaps _that_ was the reason why Naruto always came here. Everyone knew the guy was an orphan, but unlike Sasuke, he had been alone since the beggining. He probably didn't know that much about family and Ichiraku Ramen _did_ make you feel at home. He couldn't blame him, the place was nice, and, for someone that had nothing, two kind people could meant a world. No wonder why Naruto liked coming here. There was a kind grandfather and a cheerful cousin waiting for him whenever he came to eat. If that was the case, then Sasuke would probably become a Ramen addict as well.

Huh... Naruto was... definitely something.

Turning his attention back to the bowl infront of him, Sasuke focused on finishing his meal as fast as he could before the blonde could order himself more Ramen he would have to pay. When they were done, they stood up and turned to leave.

"See you later Teuchi!"

"Goodbye Naruto, Sasuke!"

 **It** **was pretty short but it was the** **best I could do. Sorry. I always thought Naruto liked Ichiraku Ramen so much because it made him feel at home and that's what I tried to portrait.**


	8. Scrolls

**Hello world! Here is the next chapter as promised! Sorry about the length. Enjoy!**

* * *

"... And then, Konohamaru came running through the door saying he wanted to fight the Old Man! You should have seen it!"

Sasuke's eye twitched in annoyance and he would have bang his head against a wall if there had been any. Twenty minutes. Twenty long minutes of stupid conversation and he was ready to hang himself. There were times, he had to admit, when Naruto's chatter could be soothing but most of the days it was plain annoying. Like now. He was talking about his meeting with the Third's grandson, and Sasuke couldn't honesty care any less.

"...he said he wanted me to be his teacher! Me! I mean how..."

As they walked through the village towards Sasuke's apartment, the Uchiha couldn't help but wonder. It was obvious the blonde was trying to make up for the silence, but Sasuke would be lying if he says that there wasn't something he wanted to talk Naruto about. In fact, there were many question he wanted to ask, but he refrained from speaking for two reasons. Some of the questions were personal. Like very personal, and just because Naruto didn't know what privacy was Sasuke was sure the blonde still had a private life, and he will respect that. After all, he didn't know if the idiot will answer them. Also, he didn't want Naruto to believe he _cared_ for him. That something for him to know, only. Still, he was curious.

"... So after getting into the ladies bathroom we-"

"Naruto."

The blonde stopped talking and turned to look at his friend, who was scowling at him as if he was about to decide wheather to start war on the Hidden Sand or not.

"Yeah?" The raven frowned.

"What did you-?"

"Naruto! Sasuke!"

Sakura Haruno run excitedly towards her teammate and stopped as she reached.

"Hey Sakura!" Exclaimed Naruto.

The pink haired girl placed her hands on her knees and panted looking up at the boys with a small smile. Sasuke raised an eyebrow skeptically, noticing the several tiny bruises and scratches cover inglés her arms, legs, and face.

"What happened to you?" Naruto seemed to notice as well.

"Hey, you okey Sakura?"

When she was finally able to catch her breath, she straighten up and smiled.

"I'm fine don't worry, guys." She assured. "I just finished training with Kakashi sensei and it turned out to be a little bit more difficult than I thought." This surprised both boys.

"You were training with Kakashi?" Asked Sasuke.

"By yourself?" Naruto's jaw hit the floor.

"Of course." With a sudden feeling of smugness, Sakura squared her shoulders and raised her chin with pride. "I was amazing! Kakashi said that my chakra control was just as good as any chunnin. He was impressed with my genjutsu as well. Isn't that great Sasuke? Sure, I'm not as good as you are, cause you _are_ the best, but-"

Sasuke had to hold back the urge to roll his eyes. This girl could be more annoying than Naruto.

"Why are you here, Sakura?"

The kunoichi stopped her rant and her eyes widened in surprise. She looked hurt for a moment, before smiling again and burring her hand on her kunai pouch.

"Well, Kakashi sensei told me to give you this." She pulled out a pair of scrolls with strange designs running down the sides and held them out to her teammates.

"What are those?" Asked blonde as he took them, placing one under his armpit and holding the other one with his only free hand. Sasuke eyed them curiously.

"I don't know. He told me that you will know after you look at it." The boys exchanged a look before Naruto make move to open one of the scrolls with his mouth, but Sakura grab his wrist, stopping him.

"He also told me that you shouldn't open them in public." She said with serious face that left no room for argument. Sasuke under stood inmediately.

"What do you mean?" Naruto, of course, didn't. "Why can't we o-?"

"We understand. Thank you Sakura." Said the raven pulling the idiot with him as he started walking down the street again. "Tell Kakashi that we'll work on it."

"Hey, what's up!?" Even though he protested Naruto didn't stop Sasuke from dragging him. The blonde turned his head back to the pink haired girl. "See you later Sakura!" He yelled over his shoulder, placing the scrolls on his weapon pouch.

The girl, who was staring at them with confused expression, waved back at Naruto and gave a small awkward smile.

"See ya!"

* * *

"What was all that about?"

After their meeting with Sakura, Sasuke dragged Naruto all the way back to his apartment, without uttering a single word. Not even now that they were standing infront of the flat's door. The raven who was still holding the grocery's bag, turned to his teammate.

"The key is in my pocket."

Naruto, who didn't appreciate being ignore, grumbled something about 'arrogant bastards' before reaching out to Sasuke's front pocket to fish out the key. After a few seconds of moving his hand around, the blonde halt all movement and looked up to his teammate with a blank expression. Sasuke arched an eyebrow.

"What?" Naruto stared at him a little more before talking in a flat tune.

"There is no key." Sasuke returned the blank look.

"Search the other pocket."

After five minutes of looking for the key everywhere they both came into a conclusion.

"You left the key inside, stupid."

"Shut up, loser."

* * *

 **That's it! Please review!**


	9. Communion Jutsu

**And today's chapter is brought to you thanks to my awesome new beta XYZArtemis! This is the first chapter we did together and certainly not the last one. Thank you all for putting up with all of my bad grammar up to this point, but don't you worry! From now on there will be no bad spelling! Thank you, and this goes XYZArtemis! Hope you enjoy it.**

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After finding out they had left the key inside, Sasuke and Naruto proceeded to have a very proper and civil conversation about the matter.

"How the hell could you forget about the key!?"

"The same way you forgot to remind about it!"

"Oh hell no! You are not blaming this on me!"

"Well it isn't my fault, either!"

In all honesty, Sasuke couldn't feel anymore embarrassed. He was an Uchiha, a prodigy, the last of his clan, heir of the Sharingan! And yet, he failed to take the key out with him after leaving his apartment. Disgraceful. He was sure not even Shisui made such mistakes, and his cousin, though skillful and wise, was pretty much a mess when it came to daily activities.

"You know what!? Never mind that!" shouted Naruto in frustration, before letting out a sigh and lowering the volume. "How are we getting in?"

That... was a good question.

Under normal circumstances, he would use a teleportation jutsu to get in, but then again, you needed two hands in order to do that, and unfortunately for the two genin, it was impossible to mold chakra. Then, of course, there was the window, but Sasuke was pretty sure he locked them all before leaving. They could go through the balcony (he always kept a spare key hidden underneath a plant), but that would mean they would have to climb. It was better than breaking a window or staying out there, so...

He turned to look at Naruto, who was watching him expectantly.

"Come on." He said, pulling the blonde with him out of the building. "We'll use the balcony."

* * *

Sasuke couldn't be anymore grateful with Kakashi for teaching them how to climb trees with their chakra. It made things way easier.

After landing (more like stumbling) on the balcony, Naruto hurried to search for the key while Sasuke indicated where it was. He found it and they were currently putting the food inside of the fridge.

"We could have bought some instant ramen," complained the blonde as he placed the eggs in their respective place, "instead of all those green things."

"I'm not contaminating my house with stuff I don't even eat." explained the raven flatly while organizing the vegetables. "Besides, you brought more than enough. You are just staying for the week."

If anyone had been watching them they would have found the situation strange: Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki talking in what could be called a "normal way"? Unheard of, but then again, it could have been the calm before the storm or they simply ran out of topics to quarrel about.

"There is no such thing as too much ramen!" said Naruto indignantly.

"Whatever you say, loser." answered Sasuke, grabbing a tomato from the fridge before closing its door. "You still have the scrolls Sakura gave us?" He asked facing his teammate. The Uzumaki frowned in confusion.

"Ummm... Yeah?" He took out both scrolls and presented them to Sasuke. "Here they are."

The Uchiha nodded in acknowledgement and turned to walk towards his room, bringing Naruto with him.

"I'll be bold and say you don't know what those things are." said the raven as they entered his bedroom. The blonde raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ummm... They're scrolls?" He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sasuke scowled at him.

"They're scrolls that contain S-rank jutsu."

That wasn't expected.

"What!?" exclaimed Naruto, making Sasuke flinch. "Why would Kakashi-sensei give us a scroll like that!? And how do you know they're for S-rank jutsu?!"

The raven took the scrolls from the blonde's hand before walking over the bed and sitting down on the center of it. Naruto followed his example.

Sasuke settled in a crossed-legged position, spreading one of the scrolls over the duvet with Naruto leaning slightly over his shoulder so they could see the writing inside of them as well. What they found make their eyes grew wide.

Black ink danced over thin paper, drawing intriguing kanji patterns and perfectly done seals that created what could have been a piece of art. A series of firm and delicate strokes formed the image of what looked like a pair of shinobi making hand signs together, showing the perfect mixture of two different chakras molding into one as they fought a group of shadowy figures, enemies for sure.

Both children stared at it for what could have been ages, the gears of their minds turning in a useless attempt to understand the complex technique. Naruto was the one who broke the silence.

"What... is that?" asked the blonde, his voice barely above whisper.

"A Communion Jutsu." muttered the raven back. "I never thought they actually existed." For the first time in all his years of knowing the boy, Sasuke sounded genuinely surprised.

"What the heck is a Communion Jutsu?" He had plenty of experience with forbidden jutsu (thanks Mitsuki), and he was sure he heard (or read) something about those communion thingies somewhere, but he didn't have any certain concept of the jutsu, or how it worked.

"A Communion Jutsu is a rare technique where it takes two different people to do the hand signs." explained Sasuke, still eyeing the scroll with a small frown. He pointed to one of the figures. "It takes two. While you do one sign your partner does the other, and then you join hands with him in one single motion. It then completes the hand sign, which molds your chakra together, although they are still both "separated' in a sense." Naruto was even more confused.

"But I thought it was impossible to mix your chakra with someone else's through hand signs." Iruka-sensei told him that, he remembered. It was one of the few classes in which he paid attention. He looked at Sasuke uncertainly, waiting for him to answer. It took him a few minutes.

"... Looks like we were wrong." His gaze shifted to their joined hands. He scowled, and then looked back at the scroll. "If there is a way to actually mix chakra like that..." he paused for a moment. "This could be an extremely powerful jutsu." Naruto stared at him, before his eyes traveled to his left hand and Sasuke's right.

"That's... AWESOME!"

The booming, loud voice Naruto was so well known for hit the Uchiha's ears with so much power he cringed and almost felloff the bed.

"Just think about it!" He stood on the comforter, and waved his arms around as though to emphasize his point. "If we learn how to mold out chakra and how to do the hand signs we'll be unstoppable! I can already see the Old Man's face when he finds out we mastered an S-rank jutsu! He'll be all: 'Oh my, Naruto!'" said the blonde making a very bad imitation of the Third Hokage. "'I'm so impressed with newly developed skills. Your power surpasses mine so much. In fact, I don't know what I am even doing here anymore. I'm too old and boring to be the village's leader, but you! You my child should be named Hokage at this moment!' Oh man, it will be great!" After dropping the stupid act he started jumping in the bed. "We need to start training NOW!" yelled the Uzumaki as he grinned from ear to ear.

All the while, Sasuke was being dragged by the brash movements of his teammate, and was forced to close the scroll and grab it before Naruto started jumping all over the place in his display of enthusiasm. Just when the idiot was about to get off the bed, the Uchiha pulled roughly from their joined hands, making him fall down on his back on the bed. Sasuke took the chance to place the scroll on the night stance and smack the blonde on the head.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Naruto as he rubbed the sore spot on his skull. He turned to glare furiously at the raven haired boy. "What the hell was that for, you bastard!?"

"For being a loud and annoying idiot!" He retorted.

"Oh come on!" said the Uzumaki as he sat on back up again. "Don't tell me you don't want to learn this jutsu as well." Now it was Naruto's turn to scowl. He was pretty sure Sasuke was just as eager as he was to learn the technique; he just refused to show it. "Right now it's perfect for us! Or have you forgotten our 'problem'?" He raised their chakra covered hands, staring at Sasuke skeptically. "Just how much training can we actually do when we are like this?" All he needed was a little convincing. "You said it yourself: it could be a very powerful jutsu. Well, Kakashi-sensei gave us that scroll for a reason. Why not using it? Just think about it! We would be able to perform jutsu with just one hand! Who cares if you need a partner! Jutsu with one hand!" He grinned. "I mean, how cool would that be!? We could become the greatest shinobi of our generation, believe it! We just have to try!" He stared at Sasuke dead in the eye. "You said you wanted to become stronger, didn't you?" Something flashed on those pitch black orbs and Naruto couldn't help but smirk. "Well, this is your chance" He raised his free hand so it could be between the two of them and curled it into a fist. "What do you say? You with me?"

The raven stared at him for moment then at his waiting fist. A few seconds passed and the same thing flashed through Sasuke's eyes as he looked at the blonde. Slowly, he raised his own fist.

"I'm in."

Their fists bumped against each other firmly.

 **Review please!**


	10. Scars

**I'm so sorry for the lateness! School has been a royal pain this last weeks and hoy know how it is. 'School should be paramount on your life you need to learn this stuff bla, bla, bla, yadda, yadda' Whatever. I promise I'll try to keep up with the schedule but I can't confirm anything. So in order to make it up to you an extra long chapter! Also, I'll write another one** tomorrow **! Yay! You can always thank XYZArtemis for the 'no grammar mistakes' and with nothing left to say, on with the story!**

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Njaruto's breath came out short as his knees, unable to support his weight, buckled, and he finally fell into the ground with a loud 'huff'. Soon after he hit the grassy floor, a second body was quick to follow after a small curse. Blue eyes glared at ember skies in frustration.

"I told you we should have stopped by the seventh time." If possibly, the monotone voice by his side only annoyed him more.

"Shut up, asshole."

"Hn."

Fortunately, Naruto was too tired to argue any further, which was totally stupid! No matter how many times he thought about it, it just didn't make sense! They shouldn't be this tired after only two little hours of training! Sure, it had been very tough and they might have gone a _little_ bit crazy with the amount of chakra required, but Naruto was completely sure it was all Sasuke's fault! That bastard was supposed to be the responsible one here! It was his duty to keep them from using too much chakra! (In fact, he was sure Sasuke actually pushed them to keep going) Seriously, what was the "almighty" Uchiha thinking?

Turning his head to look at the boy in question, Naruto's eyes widened briefly at the sight they met.

Ruffled raven bangs were pressed against pale skin dripping with sweat. Clouded, unfocused eyes stared dully at the darkening sky, body heavy with exhaustion. His chest rose and fell with each pant coming from slightly parted lips, in an attempt to take in as much air as he could.

Huh... Looks like Naruto wasn't the only one tired after all. Good.

Gazing back at the heavens, the blonde let out a sigh and frowned. Man, was this pathetic... Two hours! They couldn't stand after just two hours! Kakashi's training was half the day long and yet they couldn't stand after two hours of training by themselves! How stupid...

With a sharp intake of air, Naruto used all of his remaining strength to swing up his upper body into a sitting position. He stretched out his left arm over his head and groaned as he heard his shoulder click into place. The thought of training more left his mind as soon as it came. Not because he couldn't, but because Sasuke seemed to be too tired to do anything and would probably slow him down! He was perfectly fineand fully capable of training for at least three more hours! But he needed to take care of Sasuke. The poor little guy would need all the help he could get to walk from the training grounds to the apartment, and because Naruto was such a nice and sympathetic (not to mention good looking) guy, he just couldn't let a teammate struggle like that!

"Let's go." The blonde turned to look down at Sasuke, surprised to hear the raven talk. "Time to call it a day." The Uchiha stared back and moved to copy Naruto's position.

The Uzumaki gazed at him for a second before smiling a little. Wow, Sasuke must be very tired if he was willing to _suggest_ such thing (just like him, the raven was well-known for his stubbornness when it came to training), but it wasn't as if Naruto was going to complain. After all,Sasuke really should take a break ( _Sasuke_ , not Naruto, **Sasuke** ).

The blonde shrugged and his smile grew wider.

"Sure, if that's what you want. Besides, you're really starting to stink."

"Be quiet."

* * *

Both teammates walked down the Hidden Leaf's streets in mutually agreed silence; Naruto not feeling like upholding a one sided conversation until they reached the Uchiha's house. It was about five thirty, considering the distance between the sun and mountains, and Naruto couldn't help but wonder if two hours was really the amount of time they spent training. Not that it really mattered, but something told him they would have been equally tired after their training.

With every step they took, the blonde could feel the stares burning a hole on his back and he could hear the not-so-subtle murmurs of people around him. As always, he ignored them and pretended not to care, but he couldn't help to sneak a quick glance in Sasuke's direction, hoping to no end that the raven didn't feel the accusatory eyes as well. Fortunately, the Uchiha seemed to be too focused on not losing his footing rather than the world surrounding them.

Keeping his gaze straight ahead, Naruto's lips curled in a tiny frown, trying his hardest not to stare into the other people's eyes. Usually, he wouldn't care that much about everyone else, but now... when he was with Sasuke... He didn't want to think about it. It was depressing and embarrassing and it was definitely not a topic he would want to talk about with anyone that wasn't Iruka, especially if that anyone was Sasuke, his eternal rival.

Shaking his head slightly, the blonde choose to pay attention to more important issues, such as what they were going to eat when they got to the flat. Ramen seemed to be the best option, but he was sure Sasuke wouldn't go with it, so maybe some miso soup? Well, that was if Sasuke felt like cooking, because there was no way in hell he was getting anywhere close to kitchen, not after that morning's fiasco, but considering how reluctant Sasuke had been about eating outside, he had the feeling they were cooking no matter what he thought.

Throwing his arm behind his head, Naruto opened his mouth to ask his teammate about supper, but a slight tug on his chakra covered hand stopped him. Turning his head to look at Sasuke, he was surprised to see him swaying. Luckily, Naruto had been fast enough to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Hey, what happened? Are you okay?"

Sasuke didn't answer; in fact, Naruto doubted the boy was even listening. The Uchiha's eyes were clouded with what he could only guess was exhaustion, and his knees trembled slightly, seconds away from giving up again. His pale hand twitched every now and then with what could have considered nervousness, and he had been dragging his feet over the earth rather than walking. Apparently Sasuke was way more tired than what he let on.

"Oi, you good? Think you can stand?" It was a dumb question with a very obvious answer, but something told him Sasuke would beg to differ.

"I'm fine." He grumbled trying to stand his ground with unsteady feet. "Get off me."

See? It was obvious he wasn't fine, but he refused to admit it in all his Uchiha stubbornness. Huh... Maybe that was why Naruto felt at least some respect towards Sasuke. On the other hand it was also deeply annoying, but it wasn't as if Naruto could do much about it. Under normal circumstances, he would have simply helped Sasuke walk, support some of his weight, but now, with his right hand out of service, that would be impossible. Well, he supposed he could let the Uchiha have his way just this once.

A couple of minutes later, both Naruto and Sasuke were finally able to make it back to the apartment, with the blonde walking fairly close to the raven in case of an accident. Fortunately, there had been none.

After placing their shoes on their respective place, Sasuke made a beeline to the bathroom, dragging Naruto with him, not that the Uzumaki particularly minded; he could use a bath. It wasn't until they started getting into the tube that the weird twitching in Sasuke's hand returned. The blonde had to stare at it uncomprehendingly for a while before the raven explained it to him. He used a lot complicated terms and aboutfive big words Naruto was pretty sure he made up, but he understood all the important parts. It had something to do the chakra network being intertwined with their nervous system and the amount of chakra they had tried to mold into their hands, or so he thought. Anyway, the real problem was, Sasuke didn't seem able to hold something with his hand without dropping it; in fact, he couldn't even curl his fingers properly. This, of course, was discovered after the Uchiha tried (and failed) to get shampoo on his hair.

"Why don't you let me do it?" asked the blonde as he leaned over to snatch the shampoo bottle from his friend's twitching fingers. The Uchiha scowled at him skeptically.

"Can you do it?" He asked in a flat voice, making Naruto scowl back in indignation.

"Of course I can!" And with that, they both settled into the tube like the last day, crossed legged, one behind the other, with their joined hands between them. The only difference was that this time, Naruto was the one doing the washing.

Burrying his fingers into Sasuke's hair, the blonde started to scrub furiously at his scalp, digging his nails a little bit more forcefully than needed. The Uchiha complained.

"Watch it, loser." Curiously, the comment seemed to lack the usual heat Sasuke so forcefully put behind them when insulting the Uzumaki.

"Sorry."

The rest of the bath was spent in silence, with Naruto trying his best to clean his teammate's hair just like his own. It was considerably slow task, considering the blonde couldn't use his dominant hand, but the Uchiha didn't bother to mention it; just like Naruto not trying to initiate a conversation, he was too tired for that.

After rinsing the water from his hair, Naruto cupped a small amount of water on his hand, reached out and rubbed from the back of Sasuke's neck to the top of his head. Tanned fingers traveled through raven locks, pulling from them occasionally with surprising gentleness. Two minutes later, the blonde grabbed one of the soapy wash clothes from the tub's edge, folded it, and pressed it against the Uchiha's back. The boy tensed for a second before allowing his muscles to relax, giving Naruto the signal to continue.

The wash cloth slid over pale skin slowly, going from between his shoulder blades down to the small on his back, rubbing his flesh in what could be describe as tender. For a moment, Naruto could have sworn he heard Sasuke sigh, but he might as well have imagined it (he was feeling sleepy and drowsiness did make you think weird things). He focused on his self-proclaimed task and cleaned all of the small scratches he could find, as well as small bruises. Geez, he always knew Sasuke liked hard training, but this was ridiculous.

He dipped the cloth in the tub's warm water and prepared to keep on washing his teammates back when something caught his attention:

A scar.

It was small and a pale pink color, almost unnoticeable against Sasuke's milky skin, but it was still there, on his arm, easily confused with a scratch. Weird, it wasn't like Sasuke to get that kind of injury, especially since they were still 'fresh out of the academy'.

Curious enough as to put the bath aside, Naruto placed the wash cloth back on the edge of the tube and leaned over to touch the thin line drawn on his friend's arm. Gingerly, he traced the pink scar with his finger with a thoughtful frown, thinking about how shallow the cut must have been. Sasuke's muscles tensed once again at the feathery touch, but didn't make a move to push the blonde away, so he continued.

Upon further inspection, he found out it had been a clean cut, shallow, not really meant to hurt. He didn't get it in the Academy; Iruka-sensei was really careful when it came to weapons and he would surely remember if Sasuke was injured in any of their classes. He racked his mind searching for any moment during their training were the raven received such wound, but all that he could think of was the time when Haku attacked him with the senbons, and even then, he was sure the medics healed all of his cuts so they didn't scar over. Weird.

Running his thumb over the pale mark he realized it was made with a kunai.

"Where did you get this from?" he asked quietly. "I don't remember you getting a scar before." He pressed the wound softly and inched closer for more observation. "It looks like you got it a couple years ago." He didn't have any kind of medical training, but Iruka-sensei made sure to drill the basics into him, so he would know if the scar was relatively fresh.

Dragging his nail along the side it, he opened his mouth to asked again about the injury, but it seemed like Sasuke already had enough of it. He grabbed Naruto's wrist with his free hand and turned to look at him from over his shoulder.

Cold, yet burning crimson eyes glared at him furiously, stabbing him over and over again without really touching him. He gazed at him so intently Naruto could practically feel his soul fidgeting under his stare, and he couldn't help but flinch when Sasuke's fingers tighten around his wrist leaving their shape printed on his golden skin. For a moment, he felt scared.

"Stop it." his voice was low in anger and something else Naruto couldn't identify. "Just get this done already so we can go." As much as Sasuke hated it, he couldn't go anywhere without Naruto, not for now at least.

The blonde, feeling somewhat intimidated by his friend, pressed his lips into a thin line, trying his best to keep quiet and not to annoy Sasuke any further, but, unfortunately, he was Naruto Uzumaki, and Naruto Uzumaki didn't give up, not even in the smallest things. With a sudden rush of stubbornness the boy yanked his hand free and glared back at the Uchiha.

"Hey, I was just curious about your scar! It wasn't as if I was trying to piss you off! Anyway, what's so wrong with you all of a sudden? Just a few seconds ago you were totally fine! What, do you have some sort of switch or something?" Sasuke did not appreciate the comment, and Naruto sighed tiredly, all of his previous exhaustion settling back into him.

"Look-" maybe he should try and be the mature one this time since Sasuke was suddenly so whiny and girly. "-I'm sorry if I did anything wrong, but seriously, there's no need for you to be a bastard about it." He was angry at his teammate, but he was also tired and didn't really want to start an argument. Right now, he only craved for some food and a bed.

The black haired boy narrowed his eyes at him, but this time, Naruto didn't back down, replying with a defiant scowl of his own. They stared at each other's eyes for a long time before something flashed through Sasuke's gaze, and the Sharingan started to fade into plain onyx pits. Now the Uzumaki was even more confused about his friend's mood swings, but chose to stay out of it just for Sasuke's sake... for now at least.

The raven turned his head to back to scowl at the wall and growled out his next words.

"Are you done yet?" It was somehow more like a command than a question and Naruto glared at that. Letting out a small grunt, the blonde resumed his previous activity, his movements stiff and rougher than before.

Cupping another handful of water he splashed it against Sasuke's back before grabbing the wash cloth and scrubbing harshly against the pale skin, grumbling a string of colorful words dedicated to his oh, so nice friend.

What was his problem anyway?

* * *

 **Thank you! Please review!**


	11. Synchronization

**Hello world! Here is the new chapter! Late (as always)! I'm very sorry, but like I say before, I do need to focus on school from time to time. Anyway! I was just rewatching Naruto Shippuden with my cousin the other day and I realized Naruto and Sasuke 'forgot' one step about the communion jutsu. I think some of you know what it was, so I decided to put that 'missing part' here. As always, a good portion of the credits go to my beta XYZArtemis and let's get started!**

Naruto scowled at his ramen bowl as he took another large bite of noodles and shoved it down his throat with just enough force as to not actually choke himself. No, he wasn't that hungry, but he was incredibly annoyed, and since he was currently unable to punch the nearest wall, he would simply have to take it all out on his food. Stupid fish cake, take that!

Fixing his gaze to the subject of his wrath, Naruto clenched his fingers around the chopsticks to the point he thought he would break them. He was just so angry! What the hell was the bastard's problem anyway!? Geez, it was worst than dealing with Konohamaru (and the little imp was the most annoying person in the world when he wanted to be)!

He was sure Sasuke noticed his glare and he was simply trying to ignore him, which was, by all means, a very coward-like attitude. After all that stuff in the bathroom the jerk wasn't man enough to face him? Hmph... chicken.

Determined to make the Uchiha feel as uncomfortable as he could, Naruto kept staring at him, burning a hole on the side of his skull. Eventually, the pale fingers began to twitch unconsciously. A small smirk came to the blonde's face. _Gottcha._

Just when Sasuke was about to break, someone knocked at the door, catching both boys' attention.

Putting his plate on the table, the raven stood up and walked towards the entrance, dragging Naruto with him without so much of a look. Twisting the doorknob, Sasuke stepped back allowing his visitor to come into view. Kakashi. Naruto stared at him in confusion.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei!" He exclaimed, waving his hand as a salute. Sasuke's voice wasn't as cheerful.

"What are you doing here?" As always, the god of congeniality.

"Hello to you too, Sasuke." He said with his usually laid back tune. "Naruto." He nodded to the blonde in acknowledgment. "How are you two doing?"

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke repeated his question before Naruto could answer to Kakashi's. The jounin didn't seem to affected by this, giving both of them a one-eye smile.

"Can't I just come check on my favorite students?" Naruto doubted Sakura would appreciate that.

"No." Answered the Uchiha dryly. "What do you want?" Apparently, Sasuke was taking this chance to let out all of the irritation he had been about to let out on Naruto. Kakashi seemed unfazed though, as he push his way into the house, ignoring Sasuke's question.

"My, my, aren't we moody tonight. What happened? Didn't you enjoy your bath?" Neither Naruto nor Sasuke really felt like answering that comment and choose to scowl angrily at their sensei. Kakashi stared at them in surprise.

"Wow. Now the two of you are moody. Is it because of your living arrangements? I thought you had gotten over it, Naruto."

"Just tell us why you're here, sensei." He was tired and annoyed and there was still some ramen left in his bowl. He didn't want to deal with Kakashi's teasing right now.

"Well, if you insist." He walked towards the couch and sat down casually, his voice far more serious than Naruto had ever heard. "How did your training go?"

 _He must be talking about the scrolls..._ Naruto's eyes traveled to Sasuke as the raven closed the door to his apartment and walked towards Kakashi.

"It was fine." Said the Uchiha flatly. "We didn't accomplish much, but it was the first day." Naruto wisely choose to stay away from the conversation and let Sasuke talk to their sensei. After all, _he_ was the one who messed up.

"I guess you're right." Kakashi turned to scowl at them. "It was the first day, but I was hoping you two would have at least read the scroll properly."

 _Busted._ Naruto tried not frown as he felt the lecture coming. Still, Sasuke was not dragging him into this.

"It was the bastard's fault!" He said loudly while pointing at the raven. " _He_ was the one who rushed into things!"

"Don't you dare try and blame this on me, idiot!" He countered. "You were the one who said we should start right after we received the scrolls!"

"And you were the one that didn't bother to read the scrolls!"

"And you were the one that didn't bother to read them either!"

"And I'm the one that's putting an end to this!" Exclaimed Kakashi as he stood, walked to where his students were fighting and grabbed each of them by the ear, pulling rather harshly from the cartilage. Naruto was the first one to complain.

"Ite!" He screamed as he waved his free arm frantically. "Let go sensei, that hurts!" How Sasuke was able to simply scowl at the treatment he had no idea.

"I thought that after spending this much time together you two would have finally stopped your fighting, but it looks like I was wrong." He said while letting go from the boys' ears and placing his hands into his pockets.

"Now, for starters," he spoke sternly, "if you had read the scroll carefully and from the beginning then you would have known that molding the chakra isn't the first step."

That was a surprise.

"Before you start forming handsigns and manipulating your chakra, you have to connect with your partner's heart."

 _What?_

"Harmony and compatibility are the keys to a communion jutsu. Unless your heart beats in _perfect synchronization_ with your partner's, you'll never be able to do it right. You have to _understand_ each other; _feel_ what the other is feeling and _think_ what the other is thinking. That's how it works."

Naruto had already been confused when the conversation had started, now he was sure he would have a headache. Synchronization, understanding, matching heartbeats... with _Sasuke_? The blonde had to hold back a groan. He could try and do all those things Kakashi was talking about, but why with Sasuke? Of all the people to match his heart with, why Sasuke? The thought alone make him feel queasy, or maybe it had something to do with the ramen. Anyway, bathing and sleeping with that bastard was already bad enough, but synchronizing their every move and feeling? It sounded... actually it didn't sound that bad; after all, both Sasuke and himself were very similar. Loneliness wasn't something they were strangers to.

Huh... He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad thing.

"So..." His eyes wandered to the Uchiha and back to his sensei uncertainly. "How do we do that?" Sasuke didn't seem to be any less confused than he was.

"Well," Kakashi placed a hand under his chin and looked at the roof in thought. "I don't know." Naruto resisted the urge to faceplant. "That's something you need you find out on your own." He stared down at his students. "You can only synchronize with someone's heart the way you and your partner agree to. I can't tell you how to feel what the other is feeling." There was definitely a subtext. "But I'll be glad to see what you have planned by tomorrow! Later!" And he was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving two confused genin in his wake.

They stood there in silence for a moment before Naruto reacted.

"Do you know how rude it is to not use the door!? And what was all the stuff from before!? You can't just say that and then disappear! Honestly, sensei!" He knew that Kakashi was already gone and there was no way he could have heard that, but still... how rude.

Sasuke stared at him emotionlessly for a few seconds before walking back to the couch and grabbing his plate from the table.

"Are you finishing that?" He asked as he nodded towards the half empty ramen bowl.

Naruto, who had forgotten about his supper, grabbed the bowl and emptied all of its remaining content down his mouth and into his stomach effortlessly. Sasuke scowled at him with something similar to disgust before snatching the bowl away and walking to the kitchen to place them in the sink.

"So, what do you think?" Asked the blonde as he watched from the sidelines how his teammate ate the last bit of his rice balls. "About the synchronization thing?" It was one of the few explanations he had actually understood on the first time, but he wanted to make sure Sasuke got it as well.

"I think..." There was a long pause in which Naruto thought the Uchiha wasn't going to answer. His eyes were firmly set on his plate and his right hand was still trembling as the clock ticked away aimlessly, counting the passing of seconds. Then he spoke, in a strange, quiet and soft voice. "...we should go to sleep."

Naruto raised an eyebrow curiously, but choose not to comment on the raven's constant mood swings. It was angering and weird and tiring but something told him he should simply go along with it, at least for tonight. He allowed himself to be pulled towards their 'shared' bedroom and waited patiently as Sasuke fixed the bed.

 _Feel what the other is feeling..._ It was sort of interesting, knowing what was going on in his friend's heart. When it came to emotion Sasuke was pretty much an enigma. Thanks to that annoying neutral mask he always wore it was unbelievably hard to read him. Maybe 'connecting hearts' wouldn't be so bad. In fact, he was kind of looking forward to it. Curiosity started to overcome him as he wandered just what could Sasuke probably feel. There was bound to be loneliness, but that was something he was way too familiar with and he'd rather skip that one. Still, it was strange to think of Sasuke as a lonely person. After all, he had Sakura and Kakashi and himself, didn't he? Maybe there wouldn't be so much loneliness, but he was sure there would be ha-

"Are you getting in?" The monotone voice coming from the Uchiha shook him out of his thoughts and he nodded stupidly as he climb on the bed and settled back into the futon. Sasuke followed him suit, placing the blanket on top of both of them. It was then Naruto noticed he had turned out the lights at some point.

When they were both tucked securely on the raven's bed, Naruto used his free arm as pillow underneath his head and stared at the wooden roof absently. They stayed like that for what felt like hours before Sasuke broke the silence with the same tune as the one from the kitchen.

"Naruto?"

"Hm?" He turned his head to the side in order to meet the raven's gaze. "What is it?"

Sasuke took his time to answer and Naruto stared into his friend's clouded eyes. The 'connecting hearts' training sounded even more appealing now, what he wouldn't give to know what that look in Sasuke's eyes meant. There was something he wanted to say through his eyes, but Naruto just couldn't understand what it was. The message wasn't clear enough and he was desperate to read it. There was something about him... something... familiar.

When Sasuke did talk he did it in a very non-Uchiha like voice, but if you payed enough attention, you could have been able to hear just the tiniest bit of regret.

"Nevermind."

He turned his head away from the blonde and closed his eyes.

 **Review please!**


	12. Connecting hearts

**Hello world! Before you kill me because of ignoring my posting schedule let me give some news. For starters, I'm finally going on Christmas break in two weeks so I'll be having some projects and tests I'll have to finish, so you should take this little chapter as a miracle. I'm already writing the one following this (weird enough, I ended up splitting this in half, it was supposed to be one chapter). In second place, my school has a program call BEO (british english olympics) and, guess what? I'm participating! Yay! So, if there is someone else competing for his or her country I would love to know! If we meet, at least will have something to talk about! ; ) And in number three, all editing credits go to XYZ Artemis, my amazing beta. I wasn't so sure about this chapter (Naruto's musing seemed a little forced, but I wanted to write it) Anyway, on with the story!**

* * *

Staring at the scrolls, Naruto held back the urge to whimper in frustration because seriously, just what were they supposed to do?

"Please tell me you are able to read this..." He whined at the Uchiha crouched down by his side.

Sasuke examined the letters littering the paper with keen eyes, taking his time to memorize the kanji and decipher it as best as he could, paying no mind to the blonde's questions.

"Hey, don't ignore me!" Naruto let out a small growl as Sasuke, once again, didn't bother to answer him.

They've been through the whole thing for at least one hour. After having a lazy awakening and a somehow normal breakfast, both genin went straight to the training grounds, determined to learn the scrolls from beginning to end. While they ate, the boys had come to the conclusion that Kakashi wasn't going to teach them how to 'connect hearts', even though he would watch them try and do it. In the end, they were on their own to figure out the scrolls, which was proving to be far more difficult than expected.

Naruto was surprised that Sasuke seemed to be just as lost as he was. Rivals or not, the blonde had always thought of Sasuke as someone smart, maybe even smarter than Sakura, so, a)the scroll was either amazingly advanced, or b)Sasuke was very dumb. The second option brought a small smirk to his lips.

"Don't tell me this is too hard for the 'almighty' Uchiha." He spoke mockingly as he made air quotes on the almighty part.

"Silence." Was the dry answer and Naruto snickered.

"Figures. Geez, Sasuke, and here I thought you were some kind of genius, but then again, you've always been kind of stupid." He proclaimed proudly as he sat down on the ground near his teammate. "Sasuke Uchiha: defeated by a bunch of words. Now that's pathetic!" He laughed outrightly this time, getting onto the raven's nerves.

"Would you shut up already? I'm trying to focus." His annoyance was more than obvious in his voice and it pleased the blonde to no end. How long has it been since he teased Sasuke just for the sake of it? Probably a few days; too much time for giving the raven a break.

"Why bother? You are as clueless as I am." He answered lightly.

"I doubt there's someone else in this vast world with such a severe case of stupidity."

"Hey, you're the stupid one!" He was ignored, yet again, and the blonde groaned loudly in exasperation. "Have you figured anything yet?"

"What do you think?" It was interesting how Sasuke's voice could be even more dry than the Land of Wind. Grumbling, Naruto slammed his back to the floor, pouting. "Instead of complaining you should just come here and help me." The blonde looked at him with a raised eyebrow and pushed himself into a sitting position, looking at the scrolls intently.

He stared.

And stared.

And stared.

And stared.

And stared.

And stared...

Smoke was coming out from his ears and he could feel his head overheating and his stomach twisting with queasiness. At his side, he could hear Sasuke sighing in frustration.

"Fine. Cut it out before you fry the few brain cells you have left."

He obediently shook his head to get rid of the deep rooted confusion he had felt minutes ago and turned to Sasuke with a neutral expression.

"I've got nothing."

"How strange."

Minutes passed and Naruto waited, rather patiently, for his teammate to finish studying the scrolls, pulling strands of grass and throwing them to the wind.

 _Connecting hearts..._

What a weird concept. How were you supposed to connect with someone else's heart, anyway? He thought about what Kakashi had said last night: 'Unless your heart beats in perfect synchronization with your partner's, you'll never be able to do it right. You have to understand each other; feel what the other is feeling and think what the other is thinking. That's how it works.'

Alright, and how did that work? How do you feel what the other person is feeling?

 _Well, let's see. If someone is sad then you should make yourself be sad as well. But there are many types of sad, aren't they? So, how can you feel that specific type of sad? Maybe by going through the same thing that made them sad?_

Turning his eyes away from the strokes of green in the wind, Naruto's gaze traveled back to the boy beside him. Questions floated on his mind and a hollow, strange feeling found its way to his heart as he stared at his friend.

 _Sasuke lost his entire family... Huh. I wonder how that would feel like..._

If they truly managed to connect hearts in the end, did it mean Naruto would be able to feel Sasuke's pain? His sadness? His hatred?

The blonde frowned at the last thought. What was hatred like? Maybe it was similar to anger. No. It couldn't. Iruka wouldn't agree.

He remembered... That one time... When he found him... He had said a lot of things. He had been hurt and he had let it out on Iruka. Luckily, the man understood and he had simply taken in all of his words until he was finally able to calm down. He remembered what he said to him.

'You don't hate them Naruto. You are simply mad at them and you have every reason to be, but don't confuse anger with hatred. Never. They are not the same thing.'

Back then, Naruto was outraged, but now, he couldn't help but find sense in his teacher's words.

No. He didn't hate anyone (according to Iruka, it wasn't healthy) and he doubt he would ever feel that kind of thing for anyone, so that might as well be yet another thing where he and Sasuke could disagree.

 _Maybe... but hatred couldn't be everything inside of him, can it?_

Of course not. There was one thing they had in common and the thought, though sad, make him smile ruefully.

 _I wonder if we share the same type of loneliness..._

Probably not, considering how Sasuke lost his family while Naruto didn't have one to begin with (sure, he must have parents but its not like he actually knew them) but that creeping coldness and profound desolation in one's heart when you walk into an empty house with no one to greet you must be something the raven had, more than once, went through.

Staring at his friend studying the scrolls, he felt a drop of happiness and child-like curiosity on his heart pushing away all of the depressing thoughts and bringing in a new sense of calm.

 _Connecting hearts..._

That way he would finally know if he was alone in his loneliness or if there was someone else like him. He realized he shouldn't be this happy about that, but perhaps knowing there was someone else feeling the same way he did will make Sasuke happy as well. After all, the bastard really needed to lighten up.

"Hey," he called, looking at the sky aimlessly, "do you really think we can make this work?" Sasuke's eyes were firmly on the paper in front of him.

"I doubt Kakashi would have given us something like this without making sure we would be able to understand it." he answered lightly.

"So, is that a yes?"

"Hn."

"Okay." He leaned back and used his free arm for support. "Just tell me what to do and consider it done! Believe it!" This time, Sasuke did turn to face him.

"What's with the sudden cheerfulness?"

"Oh, nothing." He shrugged, "I'm just excited about this. Sounds like fun."

"Hn." The Uchiha went back to the scrolls. "If you say so."

Naruto's grin widened and he grabbed another handful of grass to start twirling around in his fingers, waiting for his teammate to give him the signal. He would be talking, making a small conversation to pass the time, but he should stay quiet and let Sasuke concentrate if they wanted to figure this thing out.

"Hey, can we go get some ramen after this?"

* * *

 **Don't forget to review!**


	13. One, two, three, four!

**Hello world and Happy New Year! Here is the next chapter and I wanted to thank everyone who favored this story and review. I really appreciate all of your support guys. As always, thanks to XYZ Artemis for being my beta and editing this. Anyway, on with the story!**

* * *

A few minutes had passed with the blonde's quiet musings about their dinner filling the comfortable silence and creating a somewhat calm atmosphere between them. If his constant murmuring bothered Sasuke, the raven didn't show it, keeping his attention solely on the scrolls. Naruto dragged his fingers along the earth, scratching it softly with his nails and twisting the grass around them before Sasuke finally spoke.

"I think I figured it out."

Naruto crawled back to his teammate's side looking over the paper anxiously, trying to see whatever Sasuke was looking at.

"Really?" He started smiling in anticipation. Finally! They will have some real training after all. "Then, what are you waiting for? Tell me!" He was more than eager to begin.

The raven's eyes swept over the letters once more before nodding slightly, coming to a conclusion on how the jutsu worked.

"Come on! What did you found out?" The Uchiha was certainly taking his time and Naruto was growing impatient. Was the bastard spilling it out or what?

"The way I see it," Sasuke said calmly, "the only way for us to be 'connected', as Kakashi so eloquently put, is if we fell in perfect synchronization with each other." He pointed to one of the many drawings on the paper. "We need to match all of our movements perfectly;even our breathing has to be coordinated.

Naruto stared at the raven blankly. He blinked once, then twice. Sasuke held his gaze for a whole minute before arching an eyebrow.

"You didn't get it, did you?" He asked dryly. For a moment, the blonde stayed quiet.

"...So you want us to play 'mirror'?" Sasuke's left eye twitched in annoyance.

"Basically."

"Why didn't you just say that instead of giving me that fancy explanation." Said Naruto dismissively, fueling the Uchiha's irritation, before standing up and nodding firmly. "Alright! Let's start!"

Sasuke stood as well, right after putting away the scrolls on his weapon pouch.

"Hn."

* * *

"I don't think this is working." Said Naruto sulkily as he raised his leg and threw a kick at the air in front of him, mimicking Sasuke.

"Just shut up and keep going."

The blonde rolled his eyes, but continue to copy all of his teammate's taijutsu moves. Mirror was never one of his favorite games when he was kid, it was tedious and boring, and, surprisingly, it still was. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was too easy and not that challenging. Now, though, it was a little bit infuriating. At the beginning, he had been so thrilled to start their training that he hadn't even opposed Sasuke when he took the lead. He was regretting that decision now though; half an hour of copying an extremely simple round of punches and kicks (it was the only thing they could do considering the ugly, grey ball trapping his hands) was enough to piss anyone off; hell, even Sasuke looked irritated!

"All I'm saying," tried Naruto again, "is that I'm not feeling any different. Are you? Do you feel 'connected'?" The Uchiha didn't answer. "Thought so." Sasuke let out an annoyed sigh.

"Do you have a better idea?" He asked sharply. Naruto pulled his lips in a thin line and closed his eyes in thought for a moment. He came up with nothing. "Thought so," muttered Sasuke.

"Hey, Sasuke! Naruto!"

Halting their movements, both boys turned to face the source of the voice. From the distance, they could see a patch of pink approaching to them excitedly. Sakura. Naruto raised his left hand a waved at the girl happily, a large grin stretching on his face as he called back.

"Hey, Sakura!"

Sasuke stared blankly at his teammates, quietly waiting until the girl reached them to talk.

"What are you doing here?" He asked once Sakura was standing before them.

"Good evening, Sasuke." She greeted with a blush. Sasuke was tempted to roll his eyes. "Are you training with the scrolls I gave you?" She asked, clasping her hands in front of her chest.

"Actually, we just figured them out a while ago!" Exclaimed Naruto happily. "Now is when the real fun starts." Sakura's eyes widened.

"You just figured them out? You figured out two S-ranked scrolls in one day?" She sounded genuinely surprised but her amazement quickly turned into admiration. More specifically, admiration towards Sasuke. "Sasuke! That's amazing!" She squealed. "I knew you would be able to master them! You are an Uchiha, after all! That's how cool you are!" In the background, a depressing aura fell over Naruto's bowed head.

"I helped too, you know." He said sulkily. Sasuke scowled at that.

"He didn't, actually."

"Shut up!"

Sasuke spared the blonde a small glare before turning his attention back to the girl.

"So, why are you here?" He asked. Naruto, though happy to see his teammate, knew that talking to Sakura for too long would probably delay their training, so it would be better if they just got it over with.

"Is there anything you needed, Sakura?" He inquired.

"Actually, Kakashi-sensei sent me here." She explained. "He told me that you two might need some help with your training." She smiled. "So... what are we doing here?"

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a side long glance. Kakashi had sent her? Why would Kakashi think Sakura could help them? Not that the blonde was complaining, he liked having his teammate around, but he just couldn't see how Sakura could help them 'connect hearts'. Whatever. They could totally come up with something if she understood Sasuke's explaining. The raven seemed to come down to the same conclusion as him so he turned towards the girl and gave her the same explanation he gave Naruto.

"Connecting hearts, you said?" She asked after Sasuke finished talking.

"Yep." Answered Naruto. "We've been copying each other's moves for half an hour, but I don't think that's taking us anywhere."

"And you need to be synchronized in all aspects for doing that?"

"Pretty much."

A strange and dangerously bright gleam shone in Sakura's eyes as she grinned, excitement radiating off her body in large waves. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. Had he missed something?

"Well..." She drawled in a sickeningly sweet voice, crossing her arms behind her back as she inched towards them. "As far as I know, there is only one way to be 'perfectly synchronized' with someone." Her face was mere centimeters away from theirs.

"And that will be...?" Asked Sasuke calmly.

Her grin grew larger.

* * *

"And...! One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! Come on guys! With more attitude!"

"We are never speaking about this again."

"Never, ever."

Usually, it would take more than a couple of words exchanged to make Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha agree on something, but this situation didn't actually qualify as something 'usual'. Needless to say, not a word would ever leave their mouths regarding such a shameful event.

"Ugh! That's it!" Screamed Sakura in complete exasperation. "Listen you two!" She glared at both boys in front of her sternly with her hands on her hips. "Unless you two start giving this everything you got, I won't be able to help you and you will never be able to master this. Seriously! You two don't have the slightest sense of rhythm, do you?!"

Naruto stopped his movements and turned towards Sakura with a small glare.

"It's the bastard's fault! He's the one who can't do this right!" He accused. Sasuke opened his mouth, ready to argue back, but Sakura beat him to it with an angry reply.

"Sasuke is the one who leads! If anyone is doing this wrong it's you, Naruto! All you have to do is follow him!" She turned to speak to Sasuke, this time with a shy and quiet demeanor. "Sasuke, I know it's hard but could you try to slow down your skip a little? As the leader here, you have to make sure Naruto is able to keep up." She put her hands together over her chest in a pleading gesture. "Please?"

The raven scowled at her, while Naruto stood by his side outraged with the large amount of favoritism Sakura was showing.

"Tell me again how is this supposed to help us 'connect'?" That was probably the smartest question the bastard ever asked.

The blonde stared at Sakura, waiting for the well-deserved answer. They had been trying to 'connect hearts' the girl's way for quite a while now with no results. If anything, they've only managed to humiliate themselves in front of her, and probably Kakashi sensei as well, because there was no way that one-eyed pervert wasn't watching them.

"It will work, Sasuke!" She said with a smile, glancing at her two teammates. "I'm sure of it."

Naruto wasn't sure he trusted Sakura with this, but the glint on her eyes told him that she was convinced. He frowned at Sasuke, who displayed the same uneasiness he did. It's not that they couldn't follow Sakura's plan, because they totally could if they put their minds into it, but it was more like they would rather finish this embarrassing event as soon as possible.

Naruto raised a questioning eyebrow at Sasuke. The Uchiha stared at him for a couple of seconds before letting out a defeated sigh.

"Fine." He said tiredly. "One more time."

Sakura squealed in delight before backing off a few steps, grabbing a random stick from the ground and smiling at both of them.

"Alright, boys!" She exclaimed as she ushered them with the stick. "Positions!"

With a loud groan, Naruto turned around so he could face Sasuke properly. The raven glared at him and raised his arm stiffly, placing his free hand on the blonde's waist.

"Watch it, bastard." Warned Naruto with a glare of his own.

"Be quiet, idiot."

The blonde raised his arm and placed his hand on his friend's shoulder. They both raised their chakra covered hands slightly, copying the pose of a couple in a ball room.

"There!" Exclaimed Sakura as she tapped her right leg lightly with the stick. "Now, start with your right leg in three...two...one."

With disgust clearly written on their faces, both boys start moving to the beat established by the girl, trying their hardest not to push each other away. One step to right, one step to the left, one step to the front, one step to the back, rinse and repeat.

"See!? It's easy." Exclaimed Sakura with a suddenly dreamy look on her face as she hugged the stick to her chest. "There is nothing more beautiful than watching two people trying to touch each other's souls by using the most perfectly performed movements on the dance floor. When dancing one must put his/her whole heart and mind into it if she/he wishes to truly match her/his partner. If they are compatible, they are able to reach a deep level of understanding; so much so that even words become useless to them." At some point of her rant, she started spinning around like a ballerina, ignoring the strange looks her teammates were sending her. "It is so perfect that it brings tears to my eyes!" She said excitingly, before regaining her composure and turning to the boys again. "You get my point." She murmured, blushing after realizing how long she had talked for. "Now: one, two, three, four!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at her before turning his attention back to leading the dance; Naruto, on the other hand, was distracted by Sakura's enthusiasm. _Must be a girl thing,_ he concluded flatly. Unfortunately, his lack of focus on the task at hand caused him to step on Sasuke's foot for the fourteenth time that afternoon and the Uchiha was pissed.

"Last time, loser. Last time." He growled.

"Shut up."

"Come on, guys. Focus. One, two, three, four. Listen to the music!" Intervened Sakura.

"There's no music!" Answered Naruto as he managed to step on Sasuke's foot once more and the thin string of Sasuke's patience snapped.

"That's it." Muttered the raven. He pulled his chakra covered hand, bringing Naruto closer. Before the blonde could protest, Sasuke rammed his knee into Naruto's stomach. Hard.

"Sasuke!" Screamed Sakura with a high note of disapproval as the blonde tried to catch the breath Sasuke had forced out of him. The raven turned towards Sakura calmly.

"He made me."

Naruto was quick to recover, though, and in seconds he was on his feet, tackling Sasuke to the ground.

"That hurt, you bastard! Apologize!"

"Get off me, idiot!"

"Boys! Stop it!"

A couple of meters away, hidden among the trees, Kakashi Hatake shook his head with a sigh. These children...

* * *

 **This chapter was actually my sisters idea. We were watching episode 125 of Fairy Tail when she just randomly yelled: "I want to see Sasuke and Naruto dancing!" And puff! This chapter came out! Don't forget to review!**


	14. No

**Hello World! I know, I know; it took forever. In my defence school is hell, but there is a long weekend coming so that will give me time to watch fairy tail (I'm rediculously close to reach the infamous Tártaros Arc!) and write fanfiction. Yay! Oh, and JustADarnFrenchFry? One more chapter before that little thing we talked about happens.**

* * *

"What the hell is your problem!?

"Your face is my problem!"

Sakura sighed tiredly at her two teammates antics and rubbed her forehead in exasperation. These two...

"Naruto, one last time: it's one, two, three, four! Not onetwothreefour! And Sasuke don't let his clumsiness drag you back! You are the leader here!

"Oh come on! He's been the one leading for too long! Why can't I be a leader?!" Whined Naruto, earning an angry scowl from Sasuke.

"Because l'm not putting Sasuke in the girl's role! He is way to cool for that!

Sakura closed her eyes and dropped the stick she had been using for guiding them. She looked at both of them.

"I think that's enough for today." And it was. They've been practicing for at least two hours and a half without any progress. It would be better if they end it here once and for all so she could go home and rest. Yeah, it was enough. Her patience couldn't take anymore of this.

The boys did as She told them to, letting go of eachother and turning to face her completely.

"Are you sure, Sakura?" Asked Naruto. It wasn't _that_ late and he wasn't _that_ tired. Surely they could keep it up for a little longer.

The girl looked at him tiredly.

"Yes Naruto, I'm sure." She shook her head and crossed her arms. Didn't he see this was getting them nowhere? "I don't think you'll be able to do it anyway."

"Of course we'll able!" Said Naruto with a determined smirk. "All we have to do is train!" Sakura's eye twitched in annoyance.

"I was talking about you Naruto! Not Sasuke! You are the one that will never get it right." She had no doubt that Sasuke could do it (he was awesome!) but Naruto was a completely different story. Still, it wasn't as if Naruto had all the blame; boys really were incompetent when it came to dancing, even Sasuke could improve his moves. Whatever. All she knew was that her mother will scream her ear off if she stay there any longer. She let out a sigh and looked up to the sky. "It's getting late and your apartment is at the other side of the village Sasuke, you two should probably get going."

Sasuke followed her gaze and it turned out the sun was beggining to set and it would be nighttime in a couple of hours.

"What about you Sakura?" Asked Naruto.

"I'm going home too." She said, lowering her eyes from the heavens to face him. "My parents won't stop nagging me if I'm late for dinner."

"Ok then. See you tomorrow Sakura!" Said Naruto as he started walking away, dragging Sasuke with him.

"Goodbye Sasuke!" She waved with a smile.

"Goodnight." He answered simply.

Sakura hugged herself as she watched the boys walking away, waiting for them to be completely out of sight before calling out Kakashi's name. In a second, the jounnin was standing her side, reading his favorite orange book.

"Good work Sakura." He said with a hidden smile. "I'm surprised you make them listen to you in the first place." The girl glanced up to him, beaming. "So, what do you think?"

"I gotta say, I wasn't so sure this idea of yours could actually work when you told me about it, but now..." She turned to smile at the spot where her teammates disappear. "How did you come up with it Kakashi-sensei?"

"Actually, it was Guy's idea." He said with a small laugh prompting a very confused look from Sakura.

"Guy-sensei?! He gave you the idea?!" Her reaction was even more hilarious than watching his students dance.

"Yup. He did." He said with amusement. "You see, I was talking to him about it the other night after our daily 'goodnight challenge' and, as expected, he gave me his opinion." He turned back to his reading. "He hand me the scrolls and told me that it was the best way of keeping our little Uchiha's mind away from other... unpleasent thoughts."

In one second, Sakura's face fell, as she was reminded why Kakashi asked for her help in the first place.

"The day after tomorrow..." She really hoped the foul chakra covering her teammates' hands dissolved by then.

"Yup." Replied Kakashi heavily.

They stood there on the training grounds quietly, with nothing but the soft whispered reassurances of the wind to fill the tense atmosphere as they waited for the damn day to come, desperly wishing for the well-being of Team 7.

Kakashi sighed silently. Naruto was a great kid, even after everything he went through, he still managed to stay kind and somewhat sweet, but that didn't change the fact that he was still pretty stupid. He was an idiot at comforting people (his little fight with that boy on the Land of the Waves was more than enough proof of that) and even though he could be meaning well, he might end up making it worse.

Closing his eyes, Kakashi lifted a silent pray, begging the heavens for Naruto to use the little common sense he had left and try to treat Sasuke the most gentle way he could instead of using his infamous 'tough love' tecnique.

* * *

"Next time we do that, I want to lead!"

"We are not doing that again."

Naruto shoot Sasuke a confused look as they walk the familiar path from the training grounds to Sasuke's apartment.

"What? But I thought you sat-"

"I know what I say." Sasuke interrupted with a flat look. "But we spent the whole day doing nothing more with no resultes whatsoever. We'll try something different tomorrow."

Naruto looked at him skeptically.

"What, so just because you didn't manage it at the first time you are gonna quit?" The look turn into a glare. "That's very pathetic."

"I'm not quitting."

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not."

They kept going like that for at least ten minutes until Naruto grew bored and allowed Sasuke to time to sulk in peace; he will start bothering him once he got hungry.

"Let's take the shortcut."

"Sure."

In a few minutes, night came. Shinobi on patrol step up and turn on the street lights, casting their light on the passing villagers. Like most nights on the Hidden Leaf, people walked aimlessly through the streets, looking for a place to have a dinner, hanging out with friends or in a romantic date with his or her partner. The quiet sound of idle chatter and patting feet filled the as Naruto watched with clouded eyes the few people that stopped to turn those eyes at him. He could only stand a couple of seconds before his gaze moved to the floor, trying his hardest to ignore the heat of the glares on his back.

 _I'm surprised Sasuke hasn't notice_ , he thought as he stared at his teammate from the corner of his eye. If the looks and murmurs were obvious to him, then they sure as hell must be as clear as the day for Sasuke. Maybe he was just being nice and was ignoring it.

Naruto snorted at his own thoughts. Sasuke bastard Uchiha being nice. Yeah, right.

As they keep going, the blonde allowed his words to fill the silence in yet another one-sided conversation. This was nothing new really. After spending so much time with Sasuke he was quick to learn that if you wanted to have a relationship with an Uchiha you must be capable of talking endlessly without expecting a answer. It didn't bother him surprisingly. Sure, he hated being ignored, but it wasn't as if he was saying something unbelievably important, nor did he care if the bastard was listening (Sasuke almost never listen so he was used to it).

He was so engulfed on his own rambling that he didn't notice just what route they were taking. It wasn't after a disturbingly familiar sound reached his ears that he stopped talking and actually took note of his surroundings.

His blood ran cold.

Sheer, slurred laughter echoed through the air, accompanied by the heavy smell of alcohol and an eerie sense of unneasiness settled on the dark atmosphere. They shouldn't be here.

Twisting his head to count the houses, Naruto tried to figure out if they were going to pas-

Nevermind, there it was.

A few meters away from them, a local bar stood emanating a dim light. The loudest laughters came from there and near the door which gave access to the place was a large cristal window. You could see all the tables and people inside it, drinking, joking and sulking. This was bad.

Before Sasuke could ask what was going on, Naruto pulled from their chakra covered hands and try to drag him along, away from the bar.

"Hey Sasuke? I think it would be better if we use the roofs, don't you think?" He grinned as much as he could trying to be convincing.

"We are only a few blocks away." Answered the raven as he eyed the blonde suspiciously. "We don't have to use the roof."

"It'll be faster." Tried Naruto. "Come on, let's just-"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and pull harshly from the chakra ball, almost making Naruto stumble.

"Keep walking, loser."

The laughter grew louder and the blonde's stomach twisted into knots. He remembered each and every time he went through this streets and with sudden strenght, he pulled from their joint hands just as hard as Sasuke did. He was not going there. Not again. He wasn't that stupid.

"Let's take the roofs." He tried to keep the subtle note of fear away from his voice.

"What's gotten into you?" Asked Sasuke as he returned his teammates glare. Before Naruto could stop himself he let his eyes shift towards the at unitentionally. Sasuke's gaze followed.

He stared uncomprehendingly at the street infront of the for seconds, meanwhile, Naruto was debating himself weather he should tell Sasuke the truth. Soon enough though, that thought was dismissed. He wasn't weak. He wasn't going to coward like he did back then with the man who sells masks. He was Naruto Uzumaki, dammit! He could deal with this. Besides, it would just be one minute. They were only passing by. No harm done. It will be alright; as long as they pass quickly.

Sasuke turned around to face him before rolling his eyes and pulling from the chakra ball.

"Come on." He said. Naruto followed him stiffly, keeping his eyes straight ahead.

In exactly five seconds they manage to leave the bar behind them and just when Naruto felt ready to give a sigh of relief. His heart stopped.

"Hey! You little demon!"

 _No..._

* * *

 **Please review!**


	15. It's nothing

**Hello world! Here is the next chapter. Just a heads up: this chapter might be a little confusing to some of you because of the way I choose to wrote it, so let me explain. What is in italics its sort of a flashback, narrating the events that happened right after Naruto and Sasuke walked pass that bar. They explained all that happened up to the point where they are now. Get it? Yes? Cool. As always, all editing credits go to XYZArtemis, my amazing beta. And with nothing left to say, on with the story! Oh! And, JustADarnFrenchFry? This goes for you!**

The door to Sasuke's place closed with a loud bang.

"What the hell was that!?" Yelled the raven.

"Nothing you should be worried about!" Replied the blonde.

* * *

 _Confused, Sasuke turned his head to see a group of five m_ _en walking out the bar with unsteady feet. Two of them were still drinking from half empty bottles; the other three were finding it hard to keep themselves from falling and were laughing loudly as the fifth one, who seemed to be the most conscious of the group, kept grinning disturbingly at the two boys._

 _Sasuke scowled at him, studying him, and was mildly surprised when he saw a shinobi head band loosely tied around his neck. He wasn't that old, maybe Iruka's age, but it was hard to tell with his mess of brown hair covering a large part of his face. His clothes were a mess too, just like his companions'. He kept staring at them through his bangs and Sasuke found that extremely wrong. His green eyes were dark and clouded because of the sake, but they were also sharp and cold, a thin layer that covered a great amount of rage._

 _The streetlights flickered dangerously, almost giving up and leaving the place in absolute darkness. A particularly cold gush of wind blew past them, making the Uchiha shiver._

 _Something was wrong._

* * *

"Nothing I should worry about!? Are you serious!?" Sasuke almost yelled, running out of patience.

"Just stay out of it! Forget it ever happen!"

* * *

 _He had been so focused on trying to read the guy that he almost didn't notice the slight tugged on his left hand._

 _"What are you doing all the way here, anyway? And so late at night! I thought you learned how dangerous it is to wander the streets at night last time!" The agreeable tune on his voice somehow made the streets a little darker. "Didn't I teach you that?"He pouted._

 _The other drunks seemed to pull themselves together and were now laughing quietly on the background. The wind picked up, and Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He turned Naruto, ready to fire questions at him, but then saw the state his teammate was in._

 _Sky blue eyes were strangely dark, its usual light seemingly vanished from existence. His left hand was trembling ever so slightly and so was the rest of his body. His gaze was kept solely on the drunk and a small sound was creeping from his throat, almost like a whimper. He was tense and on his eyes he could see the tiniest hint of fear. Tiny._

 _Something was very wrong._

* * *

"How can you expect me to just forget it!? Who were those guys!?"

"How the hell should I know!?"

* * *

 _A dramatic sigh._

 _"Guess I'll just have to teach it to you again."_

 _And with that, the act dropped. They started to close around them and the smell of alcohol and saliva couldn't be any thicker. The air grew heavy with the foreshadowing of a fight and something felt very, very wrong._

 _These were just some low lifes, there was no doubt Sasuke could beat them, even if he couldn't use his left hand. In fact, he had already done something similar in the past. He only needed Naruto to-_

 _"Run."_

 _Suddenly he was being dragged down the street at blinding speed in a second._

 _"What. the. hell," the raven ground out._

 _Naruto, in the lead, kept his focus ahead, and conveniently away from Sasuke._

* * *

"It's nothing!"

"It obviously isn't. They clearly knew you, idiot!"

"None of your business, bastard!"

That did it. Sasuke was never a patient person and he was not going to start trying to be one now.

With a snarl, he pulled harshly from their joint hands, bringing the blonde towards him. He grabbed the collar of the stupidly orange jump suit with his free hand and pushed his teammate up against the nearest wall.

He was sure he heard the sound of something shattering (probably one of the cups he forgot to wash last night and left on the table, which they must have bumped into) but he honestly couldn't care any less; he would make the idiot pay for it later.

Naruto, caught by surprise, tried his best to put as much resistance as he could but, given to the shock or whatever, (Sasuke didn't care), it wasn't long before Sasuke had him cornered.

"Get off me you bastard!" He yelled as he gripped Sasuke's wrist, hoping in vain he could force it away. "I told you! I-"

"Silence!" It was late, he was tired, and he was hungry. Sasuke _really_ didn't want to put up with this. "We're not moving from here until you tell me the truth!"

"I told you: it's nothing!"

"Well it obviously must be something if those drunks were willing to chase us down half the damn village!"

"It's nothing!"

"How do they know you!? Why were they after us!? _What did you do to them!?_ "

"NOTHING!"

Something snapped.

Staring at the blonde in front of him, Sasuke wasn't sure if he should leave it or keep pushing. Normally, he didn't mess with other people's businesses, knowing it could make them feel uncomfortable. There were some times when he asked one or two questions if the situation called for it, but in general, he would let people deal with their own problems. Right now though, he found it extremely hard to do that. They have just been chased by a group of drunks who tried to beat them and threw kunai at them all the way to his house; he wanted answers. Naruto had those answers, but watching the blonde right now, bowed head and with shaking shoulders, Sasuke held his tongue.

He peer into Naruto's cerulean eyes and when he finally caught a glimpse of them, he was surprised to see them through a thin layer of tears. The blonde stared at him scowling. He was either trying to look strong or he was trying to hold back the tears.

"It's nothing, Sasuke." His voice was hoarse and somewhat heavy. "Nothing you have to be worried about."

The raven held his teammate's gaze unfaltering, but looking into Naruto's shimmering eyes, his resolve weakened. There was just so much that didn't add up; so much that was just wrong about the whole thing. Those guys had tried to kill them, (shinobi rule: if you can, go for the kill) or more specifically, they tried to kill Naruto, and that was troubling. Deeply troubling. Those guys seemed to have known Naruto for quite a while, which means this had happened more than one time. How much was more than one? Why were they mad? Most importantly, why the hell wasn't the blonde talking? If Naruto was being quiet about this now, then that means he had also been quiet about it before, but why? Why did he feel the need to keep this to himself? These people wanted to hurt him, so why didn't he ask for help? Was it because he thought he could deal with them on his own? If that was so then why did he ran instead of fighting? He was clearly afraid back in that street, but those drunks weren't above the average chunin, so what was there to be afraid of? Did he just refuse to fight? When has Naruto ever refused a fight? If he didn't want to fight, did that mean he was okay with them hurting?

This wasn't making any sense. He narrowed his eyes at the blonde's trembling gaze. Naruto looked away. Sasuke sighed tiredly.

"Fine." The blonde looked at him hopefully. "It's nothing." He was giving this one victory to Naruto. _Just_ this _once_.

He let go of his teammate's shirt and backed a few steps to give him some space. Naruto kept his head bowed as he fixed his collar and Sasuke used this time to examine the blonde's injuries. Hm. That leg might need stitches.

"Thanks." Whispered Naruto, rubbing the back of his head.

"Hn."

He turned around and started making his way towards the bathroom, pulling the blonde with him. He needed some clean gauze.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	16. Finally

**_Hello world! It's been ages, but on the plus side let me tell you that I'm finally on vacation! That means more chapters are coming out soon enough! Yay! Anyway I think this is pretty close to finish, maybe four more chapters. Whatever. All editing credits go XYZ Artemis The Great, my wonderful beta! On with the story! Oh! By the way, this one goes to Lee and Libra-no-ninja9 as well as to Lily and Guest! Thank you fanfiction-reading people! Whomever you are, you rock!  
_**

* * *

"Sit down," ordered Sasuke dryly, pointing to the bed. Naruto quietly complied.

The raven let out a small huff as he watched the blonde struggle to find a comfortable position to si. Sighing, Sasuke kneel down infront of his teammate, grabbing the alcohol bottle from the nightstand as well as some gauze.

"Roll up your pants," he commanded as he unscrewed the lid from the bottle, using only his right hand. Naruto complied.

Sasuke tried his hardest not to think about how quiet the blonde was; or worse, how it might be his fault. He didn't dwell on it too much though, after all, the idiot was the one that didn't want to speak. That, however, didn't keep him from wondering what Naruto could possibly thinking. The blonde had the bad habit of always speaking what was on his mind, so for him to stay silent it could only mean two things: a) his last neuron had finally fried and he couldn't think anymore, or b) there were too many thoughts in his head to voice. And, given the situation, Sasuke would go with the latter.

As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't deny that he was very, very, curious. He had promised his teammate to stop asking questions, but that did nothing to calm the child-like curiosity he felt everytime he saw the blonde. Still, he pushed it aside and tried to focused on the task at hand: treating the idiot's wounds.

Since Naruto had been so focused on running away from the drunks, he had apparently not noticed all the fricking kunai they threw at them, so the responsibility had fallen on Sasuke to deflect them. However, because he could only use on hand, they had managed to earn a few scratches and cuts. Fortunately most of them were shallow. However, one the drunks did managed to pierce Naruto's leg as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

That was probably the most serious injury there was, so Sasuke focused on it first before moving to the other minor cuts. In fact, he didn't think he should worry about the other cuts. With the speed at which Naruto healed he would probably be as good as new for tomorrow.

He placed the gauze on the affected knee, and poured a small amount of alcohol on it. He folded it into a neat square before putting the bottle away. He picked it up and was about to start cleaning his teammate's injury when the blonde spoke.

"You don't have to do that," Naruto said quietly, hands clutching the sheets. "It'll just heal on it's own."

Sasuke blinked at him owlishly.

"It could get infected," he replied logically.

"I can do it on my own," Naruto insisted, and Sasuke had to hold back the urge to scowl.

So _now_ he was talking.

This time, instead of being politely civil, Sasuke grabbed the blonde's ankle and pressed the gauze to the still oozing cut.

Hard.

Needless to say, Sasuke took slight satisfaction in the shriek of pain Naruto gave.

"Iteeee!"

"Be quiet. I barely even touched it."

"Liar! Just hand it over! I'll do it myself!"

Sasuke swatted his teammates hands away and pressed the gauze a little harder. Naruto whimpered pathetically, but the raven paid it no mind. He started rubbing the gauze over the cut and around it, cleansing it of blood and dirt. Naruto let out a few grunts but aside from that they both fell silent. Once Sasuke finished, he grabbed a few bandages and looked up to the blonde as he worked.

"Are you hungry?" he asked.

Dumb question.

It was a little past eleven and Sasuke was tired, and a tired Sasuke meant no dinner. There were still bento boxes on the fridge, though.

Naruto actually seem to think his answer.

"Nah... It's okay," he said quietly. "You?"

"Hn."

"I'll take that as a 'no'."

The awkwardness returned and Sasuke wrapped the last piece of bandage around Naruto's leg. He gave it a slight pat, signalling he was done.

As the blonde rolled his pants so they could cover the injury, Sasuke gathered the bottle of alcohol and the first aid kit on his arm and made his way to put them away on the bathroom. Naruto, of course, followed.

After everything was put on its place they return to the bedroom and prepared to sleep. Once they were both on the bed with the lights off, a thought came to Sasuke as he stared at the ceiling.

"Those guys," he whispered and the blonde flinched, "do you know their names?"

Naruto didn't answer and Sasuke closed his eyes.

Whatever. It's not like he cared.

* * *

The next day came slowly for Naruto. The bright sunrays drifted lazily through the window and into the room, casting an annoyingly _bright_ glow over his closed eyes. The sound of idle chatter, scuffing feet and singing birds filled the atmosphere and Naruto couldn't hold back a groan. It was _way_ too early...

Begrudgingly, he pushed himself into a sitting position, running a tired hand over his messy blond hair.

Yesterday had sucked, and he wasn't feeling particularly cheerful about today being a nice day.

He blinked his eyes a couple of times, trying to get the sleep off of them, to no avail. Yawning, Naruto made his way out of the bed, blindly walking across the floor to the bathroom. Once he was there, Naruto stared at his reflection on the mirror with glazed eyes.

Man, he looked awful...

 _Wait_.

* * *

"SASUKE!"

Sasuke opened his eyes in alarm, scrambling to get to his feet as he kicked away the blankets.

"What is it!?" The sharingan spun to life as the wielder examined the room at blinding speed. His mind, which was so rudely awaken from its slumber, was running a hundred miles per hour, wondering where the hell Naruto was and why the hell he shouting if, apparently, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasuke!"

Before he knew it, he was being tackled to the floor by the blonde idiot. His back hit the ground with a painful thud and, as an added bonus, all the air was knocked out of him when Naruto sat on top of his stomach, shaking him enthusiastically.

"Sasuke!" He kept shouting with his loud obnoxious voice and Sasuke reached out to grab Naruto's shoulders, successfully stopping his shaking.

"What is it!?" Sasuke yelled, irritated. He glared at his teammate with as much hate as he could muster in the early morning hours, but Naruto kept grinning at him like a child in Christmas, eyes shining.

"Don't tell me you didn't notice!" he exclaimed cheerfully, giving Sasuke the foreshadowing of a headache.

"Notice what?" he asked.

He just woke up. He wasn't in the mood.

The blonde looked at him curiously for a moment before a sly smirk grew on his face. Sasuke scowled at that.

"Make a wild guess, bastard," he said smugly as he let go of Sasuke's shirt and leaned back, sitting comfortably on the raven's stomach. Sasuke glared at him. "What thing did you not had yesterday but you do have today?"

He really wasn't in the mood for riddles. Or for Naruto. What did the idiot meant any-?

 _Wait_.

Naruto hadn't been in the room when he woke up. That would be impossible unless…

His eyes widened in disbelief and the blonde continued to smirk at his expression.

"That's right, bastard!" sang Naruto happily as he jumped away from Sasuke, waving his arms as took a couple of steps back from the raven.

"We're free! Believe it!"

Shock was the only thing that registered in Sasuke's mind and face as he stared at Naruto running around the room excitedly.

Slowly, he raised his left hand. A small smile graced his lips as he found it free from chakra fuel, completely under his control and away from Naruto's right one.

A small laugh escape him.

It was over. The nightmare was finally over.

"Do my ears deceive me?" asked Naruto in a happy-go-lucky voice with a hand cupped around his ear.

Sasuke turned to look at his teammate, the tiny smile still present on his lips. The blonde's eyes were shimmering as the smirk turned into a smile. He took a few jumps towards the Uchiha until he was standing in front of him. Happily, Naruto leaned forward, peering at him.

"Is the great Sasuke Uchiha actually laughing?" he asked merrily.

The raven threw him a dirty glare and the blonde laughed.

"Well, if it's alright with you, I'm taking the bathroom first." And with that, he rushed out of the bedroom, yelling something about how good it felt to go take a bath without another guy.

Sasuke shook his head at his teammate's antics and stood up. Still feeling very pleased, he walked towards the bed with every intention of fixing the sheets. However, that expression changed when he came into full view of the bed.

His blue blankets were covered with a heavy, grey liquid, making them sticky and tainting them. And, although he didn't check, he guessed there would be some seeping through the mattress.

 _Must_ _be_ _the_ _fuel_ _chakra_ , he thought as he remembered how the thief had said the chakra was going to melt eventually.

Sasuke snarled in disgust and turned to shout.

"Naruto! Come back here and help me with this!" Because he was sure as hell not cleaning this mess on his own. From the bathroom, he could hear the sound of water running.

"Can't hear you, Sasuke! I'm bathing!" yelled Naruto and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Growling softly to himself, he grabbed the dirty blankets and walked towards the kitchen to clean them. As he moved through the living room, his eyes caught sight of the calendar hanging on the wall.

He checked the date.

He froze.

 ** _This one was hard to write and I can't say i really liked how it turned out. Reviews are more than welcomed!_**


	17. Aftermath

**Sorry guys, but this one is a short one. Basically just a transition chapter. Hopefully this story will reach its end in just a couple more of chapters. Thank to all of you for the support! As always, all editing credits go to XYZ Artemis, my amazing beta. Hope you enjoy and on to the story!**

* * *

Naruto smiled, happy and pleased, as he dried his hair with one of Sasuke's towels, whistling a quiet, little melody.

The air felt thick and heavy with steam, the smell of shampoo and hot water still lingering, and he sighed contently to himself. That was probably one of the best baths he ever had.

He threw on the same clothes he had arrived at the bathroom with (in the midst of rushing into the bathroom before Sasuke, he had forgotten to bring clean ones with him, but he could always change after eating something) and walked towards the door with a tiny skip on his steps. He kicked it open and shouted, "Alright Sasuke, bathroom's yours! Though you might want to take out another towel!"

Feeling his hair was dry enough, he threw the towel over his shoulder carelessly. "I kinda end up using yours! Hope you don't mind!"

Naked feet padded across the wooden floor, leaving a trace of wet footsteps in their awake. Naruto stretched his arms over his head, trying to shake off the drowsiness threatening to enter his being.

"Man, that sure was a nice bath!" he exclaimed, closing his eyes. "And what goes better with a nice bath than a nice breakfast! So, what's in today's menu, bastard?"

Naruto opened his eyes, smile ever present. Itt faltered, however, after he saw his teammate.

"Hey," he called, walking around the couch to stand by Sasuke's side, "everything cool?"

Once he reached him, he looked at what had captured the raven's attention. Naruto stared confusedly at the calendar hanging from the wall and made a quick recount of days on his head.

Nope. There was nothing planned for today. Nothing particularly important, at least.

"Sasuke?"

He turned to face Sasuke, trying to catch his gaze, but his eyes were shadowed by the raven bangs falling over his face. Brows furrowing, Naruto waved a hand frantically in front of Sasuke, obstructing his view of the calendar.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Earth to Sasuke! I asked you if everything's cool!"

A loud thud echoed in the room as the blankets were dropped onto the floor with great force, and Naruto retreated his hand out of shock.

"Sasuke?" he called again.

He watched as Sasuke's hands clenched into fists so tight that his arms started trembling, the slight tremor reaching his shoulders and he bowed his head.

"Get out," he said through gritted teeth. His voice was so low and forced that it could have been easily missed.

Naruto blinked, confused.

"What?" he looked at the calendar then back to his teammate. "Did you forget to do something?"

"I SAID GET OUT!"

Before he knew it, he was being dragged to the front door by a tight grip on his arm. He bit his lip to hold back a small whimper at the bruise starting to form there, but he didn't have time to think that much about it. In seconds, he was on his butt right outside Sasuke's apartment.

Naruto blinked his eyes repeatedly, his mind trying to comprehend what the hell just happened.

Soon he was on his feet, banging at the door relentlessly with both fists.

"Hey, you bastard! Open the door! What the hell?! If you're gonna kick me out like that at least give me time to gather my clothes! I'm still wearing my pajamas, damn it!"

It took him seven minutes of constant shouting and one bruised toe after kicking the door to realize that Sasuke wasn't, in fact, going to open.

Grumbling a string of obscenities he had once heard Iruka-sensei mumbling, he walked down the hall to the building's stairs with large stomps. What the hell was the bastard's problem? He kicked him out for no reason! He had honestly thought that today would be a great day since they were no longer bound, but no, the asshole had to go all bitchy all of a sudden and ruin everyone's happy plans. Not to mention he would probably burn his clothes in a fit of anger if his mood worsened.

Once he was outside the apartment building, he jumped onto roofs, and started making his way back to his own place. He would take the streets like a normal person, but he wasn't in the mood to ignore all of the glares and weird-out looks he would get for wearing his pajamas in public. He was way too pissed for being tolerant.

His arm stung. Unconsciously, he lifted his hand to rub at the place where Sasuke's fingers had imprinted themselves on his skin.

He scowled.

Seriously, what the hell had happened?

* * *

 **Please review!**


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